Mercedes-Benz, the German company founded by the inventors of the motor car, is pouring more resources into its cutting-edge research and design capabilities in China as the center of gravity of the new auto world shifts eastwards
In a drive to create a "home away from home", Mercedes-Benz is doubling down on bases in Beijing and Shanghai to stay ahead of regulations and consumer trends in a car market that outstrips the United States and Germany combined.
About 80% of the cars it sold in China were also made there, typically with an array of China-only features and models, and Asia overall accounted for almost half its global sales in 2021. Mercedes has spent 1.1 billion yuan upgrading the centre, with much of the investment ensuring it can do an array of testing locally - rather send new technologies back to the Sindelfingen headquarters in Germany.
"Tech savvy customers here require that you're very local in terms of intelligence, connectivity and autonomous driving," one of the sources said.All four sources said a sharper focus on the customer in China in recent years is already paying off. Moving the studio to Shanghai was partly driven by the need to significantly speed up the design process by making it more digital, as most virtual model-making vendors are based there.
If the studio makes it to the final of internal competitions for car designs, it will send designers and modellers to the main studio in Germany to create life-size models for the last round, the source said.Daimler's drive to strengthen its technology development in China also comes at a time when the cost of failing to be in step with Beijing policymakers has never been higher.
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