Dieter Zetsche, the walrus-moustached chairman of Germany's Daimler, flew into Fujian province yesterday morning promising to revive the Mercedes brand in the mainland by building a two billion yuan commercial mini-van factory in Fuzhou.
Fujian Daimler Automotive, the 50-50 joint venture of Daimler and Fujian Motor Industry Group, will introduce the commercial mini-van by the middle of 2009 with an initial production capacity of 40,000 vehicles a year.
The commercial mini-van is similar to the family vehicle but is used by businesses for transporting small cargo.
Mr Zetsche did not rule out the possibility that the plant may also make Mercedes-Benz passenger cars in the future. 'It's important to catch up with the fast-growing vehicle market in China,' he said.
The Fuzhou facility will produce the Viano, Vito and Sprinter mini-van models under the Mercedes-Benz brand.
Since the factory will be on the country's southeast coast, Mr Zetsche said he would not exclude the possibility of exporting a small number of vehicles, although the focus now is on the domestic market.
Fujian Daimler will sell its mini-vans through 20 to 25 dealers when the models are launched in about 20 months.
