Mercedes-Benz production chief says new models may be built only abroad

German automaker Mercedes-Benz is halting all new investment in its German sites and considering plant closures after months of talks with employee representatives on cost cuts reached an impasse.

RuskiGazeta Editorial DeskNovember 12, 2026, 10:27 PMUpdated: November 12, 2026, 10:57 PM

Mercedes-Benz production chief says new models may be built only abroad

Mercedes-Benz is halting all further investment in its German production sites and examining which of them the company can still afford to operate. Michael Schiebe, the board member responsible for production, and human resources director Britta Seeger said this in an interview published on the automaker’s internal network on Thursday; a company representative confirmed their statements.

Schiebe said the board had jointly decided to “halt all further investment in German sites” because investing in Germany was impossible under the current cost structure. According to him, an hour of work at German production facilities can in some cases cost five times more than at the group’s plants in Eastern Europe.

Штутгарт-Унтертюркхайм, где расположено одно из крупнейших предприятий Mercedes-Benz (архив)

New models only abroad?

Seeger acknowledged that the talks had failed to produce “a path toward solutions.” “We all want to avoid plant closures at any cost, but unfortunately we are now forced to consider this option more specifically,” she said. In October, Schiebe warned that one assembly plant and one powertrain facility could close without cost reductions. The company has not yet named the specific sites, and Schiebe said that successors to current models would, in that case, be built only abroad.

The decision comes amid falling profits: last month, the automaker lowered its forecast for 2026 operating profit to €5.8 billion, while deliveries to China fell by 29% over the first nine months. The IG Metall trade union opposes the cuts. Mercedes-Benz left the Russian market in 2022 and later sold the assets of its plant in Esipovo near Moscow.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0, CC BY 4.0; archive)

Mercedes-Benz production chief says new models may be built only abroad

German automaker Mercedes-Benz is halting all new investment in its German sites and considering plant closures after months of talks with employee representatives on cost cuts reached an impasse.