Mercedes-Benz may not build the GLC in Alabama until May 2030, according to Automotive News, a slip of more than two and a half years from a plan that pointed at late 2027. The company has not confirmed the report.
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Two people familiar with Mercedes’ plans told the trade paper that the schedule moved, and no reason has been given. The GLC is the brand’s volume engine in America, so the date carries real money.
Carscoops, in its Nov. 6 account, says Mercedes never gave a firm start date, though earlier forecasts pointed to assembly beginning in the fourth quarter of 2027. Autoevolution puts the old target at November 2027, while Motor1 uses the looser wording of late 2027.
Mercedes’ answer and the reported 2027 to 2030 slip
Motor1, which updated its Nov. 4 story with a company reply, quotes a Mercedes spokesperson saying the automaker is not providing an update on the production timing or allocation of an individual future model. The same spokesperson said the commitment to Tuscaloosa and the planned $7 billion in U.S. investment through 2030 has not changed. That is a non-denial, not a confirmation, and Motor1 stresses that Automotive News did not establish why the date moved. Autoevolution reports that a spokesperson declined to comment on the revised schedule. It adds the trade paper’s suggestion that Mercedes may be waiting for the next-generation GLC, internally called V255, instead of moving the current 254 series, which launched in 2022, and paying for a second changeover.
Skipping a second changeover at Vance
Sam Fiorani of AutoForecast Solutions told Autoevolution that preparing a plant for a model nearing the end of its lifecycle would mean another costly changeover when its successor arrives. The logic is simple: tool the Vance plant once, for the model that will run into the 2030s. By 2030 the current GLC would be eight years old. Fiorani’s reasoning is an analyst’s reading, not a Mercedes statement. Carscoops floats a different possibility, a reported move by the Commerce Department that could lower the tariff rate on European cars to 10 percent, which would save Mercedes millions on imports. Motor1 warns against assuming tariffs explain the move, because Automotive News offered no cause.
The Alabama plan Mercedes announced in March
The delay lands against a publicly staged commitment. At a March 31 event described by Made in Alabama, Mercedes said it would invest $4 billion in its Tuscaloosa County plant in Vance by 2030, part of more than $7 billion across the country. The plant had just built its 5 millionth vehicle. Michael Schiebe, the board member overseeing production, said the company believes in Tuscaloosa, is staying and is growing. The release said the GLC was expected on the Tuscaloosa lines in the next few years.
Carscoops’ April report added that chief executive Ola Kallenius told Automotive News that GLC output would not be fully up to speed until 2029, and that the electric EQS SUV was moving to Germany to free space. Capacity at the plant would rise from a range of 250,000 to 300,000 vehicles to about 340,000. The stakes are visible in sales. Carscoops puts Mercedes’ U.S. GLC sales at almost 54,000 in the first nine months of 2026 and more than 71,000 in all of 2025. Autoevolution says the GLC is about a quarter of Mercedes’ U.S. passenger sales. The model is built in Europe and faces a 15 percent tariff on its way into the country.
Pricing exposure is the other half of the question. Motor1 reports that imported GLCs may face a 15 percent combined tariff on passenger vehicles from the European Union under the U.S.-EU trade framework, and Autoevolution notes Mercedes has not disclosed how much a later start would add to its tariff costs. Motor1 also cites earlier reports that the GLC was expected to account for about 50,000 units in its first 12 months of American production, a figure not tied to a specific year, and that annual output at the plant could eventually pass 280,000 vehicles. If the May 2030 date is accurate, every one of those vehicles would continue to arrive from Europe in the meantime.
Motor1 adds that Vance has built Mercedes SUVs since the 1990s and now assembles the GLE, GLS, EQE SUV and EQS SUV, with the Sprinter van built in South Carolina. Plant employment stands at about 5,800 people, with roughly 60 percent of output exported, according to Made in Alabama. None of those commitments depends on the GLC date, which is part of why Mercedes can say its Tuscaloosa plans are unchanged while declining to discuss one model’s timing. What remains unknown is whether Mercedes will confirm a date. The spokesperson’s wording leaves room for the report to be right, and nothing from the automaker in the sources read here rules out May 2030.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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