Mercedes-Benz to invest $1.3b to expand US production

German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz said Friday it would invest $1.3 billion to expand and upgrade SUV production at its Alabama plant.

Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler, said the improved facility in Tuscaloosa would support 300 new jobs and have end-to-end digitization of production processes as part of a "smart factory approach."

"In this way we can produce the next SUV generations even more flexibly, efficiently and in proven top quality," said Markus Schaefer, a Mercedes-Benz executive for cars, manufacturing and supply chain management, in a statement.