Mercedes Pushes U.S.-Built GLC to May 2030, Keeping Its Best-Seller on Tariffed Imports
Mercedes' top-selling U.S. model will keep coming from Europe under the 15% EU tariff. The company confirmed the new date but didn't say why it slipped.
Mercedes-Benz has pushed back the start of GLC production at its Vance, Alabama, plant by roughly two and a half years. Assembly of the next-generation compact SUV will now begin in May 2030 instead of late 2027, and the company hasn't said why.
The timing matters because the GLC is the brand's top-selling model in the U.S., according to Automotive News, which first reported the change on November 3. Until the Alabama line is running, the GLC keeps arriving from Europe under the 15% tariff on EU-built cars, the same pressure that is redrawing the map of the Southern auto belt.
"Production has been rescheduled for May 2030," Mercedes said in a statement to Motor1. It gave no reason and didn't say whether the investment plan behind the move has changed.
What Mercedes promised in Alabama
The GLC was the headline of the expansion Mercedes showed off on March 31, when the new GLE and GLS made their world premiere at the plant and it built its five-millionth SUV. At that event, Mercedes said it would put $4 billion into the Alabama site by 2030, part of more than $7 billion in planned U.S. spending, and that the GLC would join the lineup within a few years, according to its premiere release. The release gave no start date.
Automotive News had reported a late-2027 start. According to the same reporting, cited by Motor1, the expanded plant would build more than 280,000 vehicles a year, with about 50,000 GLCs in the first 12 months of the new line. Mercedes hasn't confirmed either figure.
Today, roughly 5,800 workers in Vance build the GLE, GLS, and GLE Coupe, plus the electric EQE SUV and EQS SUV. Mercedes says about 60% of the plant's output is exported.
Who's building, and who's waiting
The delay runs against the direction of the region. Hyundai said last week it will start building the new Tucson at its Montgomery, Alabama, plant before the end of 2026, backed by roughly $450 million in new spending. BMW's Spartanburg plant in South Carolina already builds more than 1,500 SUVs a day, according to BMW.
The closer parallel is now Audi. Its $4 billion Georgia plant isn't due to build cars until the early 2030s, so Audi's U.S. lineup will be imported until then. With a May 2030 start, the GLC sits on a similar clock.
Mercedes doesn't have much room in its U.S. numbers either. The brand sold 76,200 passenger cars in the third quarter, up 4%, but was still down 1% for the year, as we covered in our look at Mercedes' Q3 U.S. sales. Mercedes says GLC sales are up this year, though it doesn't publish model-level figures.
What we don't know yet
Mercedes hasn't explained the delay, said whether the $4 billion figure still stands, or specified which GLC versions Alabama will build, including whether the change affects the electric GLC. We'll update this story if Mercedes or the state of Alabama publishes a new schedule.
