In the Mercedes-Benz Museum, in Stuttgart, Germany, a collective of Line 6 of the La Perlita company, which served until 1984 in the Buenos Aires party of Moreno, is maintained as a stable part of the exhibition. That model, like so many others, It was produced by Mercedes-Benz Argentinaat the Juan Manuel Fangio Industrial Center.
Today the sale of the Argentine Mercedes-Benz subsidiary will be formalized. The announcement will be made near noon, at the plant that the German brand installed more than 70 years ago in Virrey del Pino, the first of the company outside Germany, and that will also be part of the sale.
He new owner will be the financial group STby Pablo Peralta, and that has Isela Costantini (former president of General Motors from Argentina and Aerolineas Argentinas) as her CEO. The operation is also part of Daniel Herrero, who presided over the local subsidiary of Toyota for 12 years, until 2022.
This operation does not mean that Mercedes-Benz leaves Argentina, but that the production of Vans and the marketing of the range of cars will cease to be the responsibility of a company subsidiary and will go to the hands of a local company. Today more details will be known.
The new group will be in charge of the manufacture of the Sprinter at least until 2030 and the import of the high -end range, as well as the provision of spare parts. The former truck and buse division had already separated in 2021 by a global restructuring and today is a separate company that is building an industrial center in Zárate.
With this transfer a large chapter of the national automotive industry is closed, which included the largest Argentine passenger and merchandise transport manufacturer in history and that had Juan Manuel Fangio as its honorary president. Now another story begins.
History of Mercedes-Benz Argentina
Mercedes-Benz has been the protagonist of the development of the Argentine automotive industry. It was established in the country at the beginning of the 50s’, raising His first factory outside Germany and producing more than 750,000 vehicles (including utilities, trucks and buses) in 74 years.
Its tour began on September 6, 1951 when Mercedes-Benz SRL was founded. It was the first step before starting his stage as a producer the following year.
The first activities were developed at the Buenos Aires plant of San Martín, dedicated to truck assembly (L 3500 and L 6600) and the famous assembly Black ant (170 d), a popular car that became a taxi and served as the basis of a family of vehicles composed of pickups, utilitarians and combis.
The Pino Viceroy’s plant (La Matanza), opened in the 50s, was the first factory of Mercedes-Benz outside Germany. The following year, already constituted as a corporation, acquired the land in the town of Virrey del Pino (Route 3, Km 43.5, La Matanza) where he raised a factory of 85,000 m2 cutlery capable of producing 600 monthly units destined to the cargo and passenger market.
The “Liberating Revolution” of 1955 put its continuity in the country in check. The military government intervened the company, paralyzing production and Fireing 770 people. To top it off, in 1956 the San Martín factory was closed.
With the assumption of Arturo Frondizi, in 1958, the liquidation was avoided and a year later the production was resumed at the Pino Viceroy plant. Since then the manufacture of chassis for groups, emerging in the 60s two historical models: 1112 and 1114, which were also used for trucks.
Unit number 1,000 of the Mercedes-Benz 1112, a legendary model manufactured in Virrey del Pino. In the 70’s the line was amplified with the production of the Pickup 220 D, the chassis for groups with wheelbase of 5.17 meters and the semi -shed truck L 1517.
In 1974, Juan Manuel Fangio (Bicampeón de Formula one with Mercedes-Benz) was appointed president of the Board of the local subsidiary, a position he held until 1987, when he became an honorary president until his death in 1995.
Throughout his career, Mercedes-Benz was also at the forefront. In 1982 he conceived the First collective compressed natural gas (CNC), while at the end of that decade it launched the OH front buse line.
The Sprinter began to be manufactured in 1996. Today in its third generation, more than 400 thousand copies were already manufactured.Near the new millennium, in 1996, Mercedes-Benz began to manufacture the Sprinter at an intense rhythm, a utility that revolutionized the market and from which units with a right-hander came to occur to the right to export to Oceania and South Africa.
The local plant became the Unique Mercedes-Benz in the world in producing both utilities and trucks and buses. However, everything will change in the short term.
From its independence from the Division Cars, Mercedes-Benz trucks and buses is moving the production of the ACCELO and ATEGO models, next to the buse chassis, to a new factory that is being built in Zárate and? It will start working in 2026.
Sprinter’s third generation, meanwhile, It would continue to be produced under license until 2030. The truth is that the model has already begun to electrify in several markets, and Virrey del Pino has not received (or receive) investments to face this transformation.
