Mercedes' Factory 56 builds electric and combustion flagships on one line

Mercedes-Benz opened Factory 56 in Sindelfingen in 2020 as its flagship for flexible production. The traditional fixed conveyor was replaced by automated guided vehicles—more than 400 in the hall—so each car follows its own path, and every assembly station is connected to MO360, the group's digital production ecosystem, giving workers real-time data on the whole line.

The payoff is mix flexibility: S-Class, Mercedes-Maybach S-Class and EQS—electric and hybrid—are produced on a single line. In 2026 the plant ramped up all three updated top-end models within three months, and Mercedes said production volumes can be adapted quickly to market demand. Handelsblatt reported that running electric and combustion models on one line at Factory 56 only works because the plant is fully digitalized.

Digitalization also cuts maintenance cost. Mercedes works with laser specialist TRUMPF—about 400 machines are installed—on cloud-based monitoring of the body-shop lasers, shifting upkeep from scheduled to predictive, a key cost lever during the expensive EV transition.