The 500 000th W205 C-Class – the current model – rolled off the line at the Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) assembly plant in East London, in the Eastern Cape, on March 16.
MBSA also this year celebrates 25 years of manufacturing the C-Class sedan and 25 years of women on the production line.
The East London plant is one of four C-Class plants in the world manufacturing the luxury sedan.
“Since 1994, when the first C-Class model rolled off our assembly line, we have never looked back in producing excellence from this plant,” said MBSA CEO and manufacturing director Andreas Engling.
“Producing the 500 000th unit of the W205 model reaffirms our commitment to manufacturing excellence and the positive multiplier effect that our operations have on the economy of East London. This achievement also follows a R10-billion investment into the expansion of the plant to equip it for the future.”
The first customer-ready W205 vehicle moved off the production line on March 1, 2014.
The vehicle is exported to more than 80 markets around the world.
The 500 000th Mercedes-Benz W205 C-Class is an obsidian black, right-hand-drive automatic C200 full roof sedan, which will be exported to the UK.