#alabama

Where you live plays a role in whether owning and driving a car is an enjoyable experience.

Daimler has said it will build its EQ electric crossover at its plant in Vance, Alabama. 

Aston Martin is considering building a plant in the U.S.

U.S. state representative Mike Rogers thinks so, calling it “asinine” that people in Alabama can still do it legally.

Alabama has taken on the toughest immigration laws in the country and has begun to crack down on illegal immigrants, immediately affecting the fifth largest automotive manufacturing state in the country. A second foreign auto worker was issued a citation at Honda‘s factory in Lincoln, Alabama on Wednesday.

Alabama’s touchy immigration laws resulted in the arrest of a  Mercedes-Benz executive who remains unnamed at this time. The Associated Press revealed that the German executive was stopped when driving a rental car that did not have tags and was then arrested and brought to police headquarters when he failed to provide the Alabama police officer with anything other than a German ID.

It has been well over a decade when Mercedes-Benz first opened its plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. What might have started out as just a production facility for the ML model has grown to accommodate production of the R-class, GLK-class and in 2014 will also produce the C-class for North American consumption.

Mercedes-Benz has announced that it will invest more than $2 billion into its Tuscaloosa, Alabama plant. The money will be put towards the new M-Class, the successor generations of the GL-Class, the C-Class and the expansion of production capacities.

Yesterday, Hyundai Motor Group said it is expecting to raise its U.S auto sales by 18.2 percent this year to 1.06 million vehicles, an improvement from a previous target of 1.01 million.

Hyundai will invest $173 million to modify and expand its Alabama engine plant. The expansion also includes a new engine program for the Hyundai Elantra, with a target completion date of March, 2o12. Hyundai will also hire 214 new workers within the plant to build the new engines.

Hyundai is set to build the new Elantra at their Alabama factory, as it joins the Sonata and Santa Fe at the plant. The new Elantra is already on sale in South Korea, but is set to debut in U.S. spec at this November’s 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show.

In a press release, Hyundai CEO John Krafcik said “ Hyundai‘s philosophy is to build our vehicles where we sell them, and with the addition of the Elantra to our U.S. production mix we now manufacture our three most popular models right here in the U.S.”

The move to produce the Elantra in the United States allows Hyundai to price the car even more aggressively as it aims to capture an ever larger market share in the United States.

[Source: Hyundai]