DaimlerChrysler, the world’s largest commercial vehicle producer, has selected North Charleston, S.C., as the site for its new Dodge Sprinter van assembly plant. The company will initially invest $35 million and employ 220 when the plant produces its first van in the final quarter of 2006.

This is part one of a three-phase plan by the company that upon culmination could create 1800 jobs and $435 million in investment. Employment levels at the company’s current location in Gaffney will not be affected by this announcement.

To meet the strong demand for Sprinter vans in North American markets, DaimlerChrysler will adapt an existing facility to assemble the new vehicles. The facility is located at Ladson, just a few miles north of Charleston, on the site of a subsidiary belonging to DaimlerChrysler’s Freightliner LLC. The next-generation vehicles produced in South Carolina will replace the current Sprinter model in early 2007. Since 2001, the Sprinter has been on sale in the USA under the Freightliner and Dodge brands.

A comprehensive logistics study, conducted by DaimlerChrysler’s Commercial Vehicles Division, found Ladson to have a clear strategic manufacturing advantage.

“We have ambitious, long-term plans for the van market in North America,” said Dr. Rolf Bartke, head of DaimlerChrysler’s Mercedes-Benz vans business unit. “The Ladson location will provide an immediate increase in annual output to 32,000 units as a first step toward reacting to market demand, and we intend further factory expansion depending on the market development in the US and Canada.”

Bartke pointed to the hands-on involvement by state officials and easy access to the Port of Charleston as major reasons why South Carolina was the winner of an extremely competitive site selection process. The advantageous location of the Ladson facility will reduce in-process time for Sprinter vans since the kits from which the vehicles are built land directly at the Port of Charleston after shipping from Europe.

South Carolina Commerce Secretary Bob Faith also pointed out the enormous opportunity the announcement provides in terms of potential spin-off companies. Faith said that a decade after BMW located in South Carolina, the state is now home to 232 automotive suppliers and that there are automotive-related companies in 41 of 46 counties.