Mercedes-Benz Opens New R&D Centre In Shanghai

Germany’s Mercedes-Benz Group AG said on Friday it has opened a research and development (R&D) centre in Shanghai that will focus on mobility technology.

The centre, its second R&D facility in China, will work in tech fields such as connectivity, automated driving and big data, the company said in a statement.

Mercedes-Benz did not elaborate on the size of its investment in the new tech centre, nor how many engineers it plans to eventually hire for the new location.

It said in the statement it is “aiming to attract hundreds of new tech talents”.

The establishment of a new Shanghai tech centre follows a move last year by the German premium carmaker to significantly upgrade its R&D capabilities in Beijing, by opening a new R&D facility in China’s capital.

With 1,000 engineers, the new Beijing tech facility is more than three times the size of the one Mercedes-Benz opened in 2014, and the first outside Germany that is more “on par” technically with the firm’s far bigger R&D headquarters near Stuttgart, a person close to the centre said at the time.

(Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Kenneth Maxwell)