This Day, That Year

The photo from July 27, 1982, in China Daily showed mechanics at a new Beijing service center for MercedesBenz working on a customer’s car.

The service center, covering 1,000 square meters, provided parts and service for the more than 3,000 Mercedes-Benz vehicles in China in 1982.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up policy.

Mercedes-Benz, a division of German automobile giant Daimler AG, has maintained its successful run in the Chinese market with strong firstquarter sales growth, according to the carmaker.

More than 174,000 of the Mercedes-Benz and smart vehicles have been placed in customer’s hands from January to March in China, it said.

The newspaper and beyond

In February, the company announced an investment of about 11.9 billion yuan ($1.75 billion) with its Chinese partner BAIC to build a second production facility in Beijing to produce gasoline and electric cars.

According to Daimler, the plant will allow the manufacturer to respond to increasing market demand with local models tailored to the needs of Chinese customers, including electric products from Mercedes-Benz’s EQ brand.

Its first battery-powered EQ serial model EQC will roll off the production line in China next year. It also plans to localize fully electric compact cars in the coming years.

In March, Daimler became a shareholder in Beijing Electric Vehicle Co, a subsidiary of BAIC Group, through the acquisition of a 3.93 percent stake. Besides new energy vehicles, Daimler also has been conducting major research on automated driving in Beijing with local internet search giant Baidu.