Mercedes-AMG may be downsizing some of its engines, but it hasn’t given up on making V12s. In fact it has so much demand for them, the company decided to open a new workshop at another location just to handle V12s.
The new location for its 12-cylinder engines assembly is at Daimler’s site in Mannheim, in southwestern Germany, located just an hour and a half from the Mercedes headquarters in Stuttgart and the main AMG workshop in neighbouring Affalterbach.
But though the assembly of its 12-cylinder engines is being moved, it will still be carried out under the “one man, one engine” philosophy that sees each motor built from start to finish by one highly skilled and specially trained AMG technician. The employees who currently assemble 12-cylinder engines at the AMG headquarters in Affalterbach will be shifted to the 8-cylinder engine lines.
Assembly of the V12 biturbo engines will start there in February 2016.
“Due to the strong demand for our automobiles, our production capacities at the Affalterbach engine production facility are fully utilised,” said Tobias Moers, Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-AMG GmbH. “Supplying our customers as fast as possible is highly important to us. We do not have any possibilities for expansion in Affalterbach at present, so we have decided to transfer the assembly of the 12-cylinder engines to the Daimler site in Mannheim.”
In Affalterbach, production of V8 engines will be expanded in the space freed. The employees who have until now assembled V12 engines will work on V8 production. A separate assembly line will be set up in Mannheim for V12 engines from AMG. The site there will be renovated and prepared for the new requirements.
As is the case at the AMG site in Affalterbach (production of V8 engines) and the Mercedes-Benz engine facility MDC Power in Kölleda, Thüringen (production of four-cylinder engines), each engine made in Mannheim will be assembled by just one mechanic. The modern layout in Mannheim will be adapted in terms of logistics and ergonomics to the AMG manufacturing principle of “one man, one engine.” Each engine fitter vouches for quality and exclusivity with his or her signature, which is displayed on a plate affixed to the engine. The highly qualified employees from Mannheim have already been trained for their new tasks for several weeks in Affalterbach.
The 12-cylinder engines will continue to be developed at AMG headquarters in Affalterbach. They are hidden under the hood of high-performance Mercedes-AMG S 65, S 65 Coupé, G 65 and SL 65.
