Strong demand for its high-performance cars has forced Mercedes-AMG to open up a new production line for engines. Currently, the official Mercedes-Benz tuner produces all of its V-8 and V-12 engines at its main facility in Affalterbach, Germany, but from February 2016 all V-12s will be built at a second facility owned by Daimler in nearby Mannheim. Mercedes-AMG’s four-cylinder engines are sourced from a plant in the German city of Kölleda.
With V-12 production moved to the new site, Mercedes-AMG will be able to expand production of its V-8 engines in the freed space. Staff that has until now assembled the V-12 engines will be working on V-8s in Affalterbach, while over in Mannheim new staff will be trained. In Mercedes-AMG tradition, each engine will be assembled by just one staff member also at the new site as part of the ‘one man, one engine’ philosophy.
Mercedes-AMG has been pumping out some impressive cars lately, so it’s little surprise that demand for the models is booming. And since 2012, Mercedes-AMG has built all V-12 engines for Mercedes-Benz. It also supplies V-12 engines to Italian supercar marque Pagani, and soon it will start supplying V-8 engines to Aston Martin.
“Supplying our customers as fast as possible is highly important to us,” Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers said in a statement. “We do not have any possibilities for expansion in Affalterbach at present, so we have decided to transfer the assembly of the twelve-cylinder engines to the Daimler site in Mannheim.