Workers at the Kecskemet plant have been working extra Saturdays to keep up with market demand for the CLA, but Mercedes decided this week that the extra work day alone is not enough to keep pace with mounting orders. As such, a third shift will begin work in Hungary starting in May.
“Most recently, our production has hardly kept up with the dynamic sales development of our compacts,” Mercedes CEO Dr. Dieter Zetsche said in a statement. “That’s why we are now switching our second compact car plant to three-shift operations as well – this allows us to serve the wishes of our customers around the world even better and timelier.”
Compact cars have been a particularly bright spot for Mercedes-Benz in recent months, with sales of the CLA, A-Class and B-Class up nearly 30 percent to 55,409 vehicles so far this year. Those figures should continue their upward trend as Mercedes rolls out its latest GLA compact crossover.
Photos by Drew Johnson.
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