An article in a European auto magazine is reporting just how Mercedes will expand its plant in Vance Alabama: by adding another car to the lines, the C-166.
The plant already employs some 2,800 people...no telling how many more will be hired when it starts cranking out the new M-Class sedan-like crossover model in 2015. The jobs will be welcomed, as mentioned in the previous post.
Alabama's unemployment rate is close to 10%. But it won't do much for the always-in-the-basement Black Belt, where some counties have just below 24% unemployment.
Would the answer be to plop down a plant in Wilcox County? Not as easy as it sounds. There's no interstate infrastructure to support a plant, though an extension of I-85 is on the drawing boards. The best state officials have been able to do is market the region as a great place to hunt and fish. For that, two-lanes and dirt roads work just fine.
