NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Mercedes-Benz Vans is breaking ground on a new $500 million assembly plant to build Sprinter vans in South Carolina, an operation that will add about 1,300 jobs to the state's burgeoning automotive workforce.
The groundbreaking is scheduled for Wednesday in North Charleston.
The plant will manufacture vans under the Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner nameplates. The company already has a plant at the site where Sprinter vans made in Germany are put back together after being disassembled and shipped to the U.S. because of the high duties on importing finished vehicles.
Volvo Cars is building a plant farther up Interstate 26 from the Mercedes plant and expects to employ 2,000 workers there during the next decade. BMW employs about 8,000 workers at its assembly plant in upstate South Carolina.
