Mercedes G-Class Production in Austria (Magna Steyr)
The Mercedes-Benz G-Class is hand-built in Graz, Austria at Magna Steyr Automobile Company where it has been done since the introduction of the G-Class in 1979.
The production process starts with the bodies of the G-Class arriving at Magna Steyr, then the specialized personnel builds the vehicle, one part and subassembly at time.
The welding area, the leather shop and the general assembly line. A large part of the G-Class body is still welded by hand and a part of the 2,000 employees working at the dedicated G-Class factory are welding bodies.
In Graz, the G-Class is assembled on its own production line. In contrast to other vehicle assembly plants, Graz is Robots are rare and nearly every weld is done by hand. You get the impression that the workers welding the buff G-Wagen together are artisans justifiably proud of the work. The plant isn’t part of #Mercedes’ network of factories but is instead run by Magna Steyr, a Canadian firm that also builds some Minis under contract on a decidedly more modern assembly line.
Magna produces around 100 Mercedes-Benz G-Classes a day in two shifts five days a week. In total around 25,000 Gs are produced every year including about 5,000 for the military. The 63 and 65 AMG models are proving to be extremely popular as over 60% of the civil G models are sold as an AMG.
The highlight of the plant is the test track on the local mountain of Graz, the Schockl, which is worldwide without compare; one test-km on the test track corresponds to 50km in actual operation.