The 2008 recession affected the worldwide automotive industry, which led to losses. Two years later, in 2009, Daimler AG relinquished the 19.9 percent stake it had retained in Chrysler. Shareholders voted to change the company name from DaimlerChrysler AG to Daimler AG in 2007, to distinguish between the company brand Daimler and the group's product brands. In 1998, Daimler-Benz AG merged with the American Chrysler Corp., producing the Daimler-Chrysler brand. The first M-Class was produced at the plant in Vance in 1997. In 1993, Mercedes-Benz International announced it would build its first North American auto plant in Tuscaloosa County to produce the M-Class sport utility vehicle. The diversification didn’t produce the hoped-for results, according to the company website, and the integrated technology group restructured in 1995. Sales and production continued to increase in the 1960s and 1970s, and weren’t affected by the oil crisis of 1973, a difficult year for the international auto industry.ĭuring the 1980s and 1990s, the company, hoping to become immune to cyclical fluctuations in the motor-vehicle sector, enlarged its corporate portfolio to include interest in electronics and aviation companies. This made Mercedes-Benz the best-known German brand, known for quality, luxury and prestige. It was during the 1950s that the company’s racecars were used in motorsport events, including the Carrera Panamericana Mexico and Grand Prix racing. The company grew rapidly, with management giving exports priority over domestic sales.Īs the company grew to become a worldwide brand, countries like Argentina, Brazil and India awarded import licenses that were conditional upon the assembly of vehicles in the country and the procurement of needed parts from local suppliers. The three-pointed star, wreathed in a laurel, was chosen as the company’s symbol.įrom 1937, Daimler-Benz AG increased production of armament items, including the LG 3000 truck and aircraft engines used in World War II.Īfter the war, the company began to rebuild its international network, received a new production permit from American occupation authorities in 1946 and resumed production at all plants in 1947. Talks faltered but picked back up in 1924. board member Kal Jahn approached DMG about a possible merger. The postwar German economy was bleak, and Benz & Cie. The first Mercedes had a 35-horsepower engine and reached speeds of 55 miles per hour.īenz’s autos were fast becoming known for speed on the racetrack, which was cut short when both factories were converted for war use during World War I. In November of that year, the company produced a special “high-powered” car for German entrepreneur Emil Jellinek, the son of a well-known Austrian rabbi and scholar, who named it after his 10-year-old daughter, Mercedes. In 1896, Daimler created the first truck, also similar to a carriage with an engine on iron-clad wooden wheels.ĭaimler died in 1900, leaving control of the company to Maybach. dollars, the equivalent of about $4,000 today.ĭaimler and Wilhelm Maybach founded Daimler-Mortoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in 1890 to create small, high-speed engines that could be used on land, sea or air - with the three transportation modes signified in the three-pointed star logo used today. A rear-mounted gasoline-fueled engine powered the car, made of steel tubing, woodwork panels, steel-spoked wheels and solid rubber tires.īenz & Cie., in Mannheim, Germany, built around 25 of the autos between 18. In 1886, Carl Benz patented the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, a three-wheeled auto that more resembled a horse-drawn carriage than the cars of today. Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz, the two industry innovators who never met, began work in the late 1890s to develop lightweight internal combustion engines. The birth and history of the Mercedes-Benz company is, at heart, the story of the automotive industry’s beginnings.
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