VANCE, Ala. (AP) _ The Mercedes-Benz automotive plant in Tuscaloosa is donating 15 sport-utility test vehicles to Alabama schools for use in classroom training.
Mercedes-Benz International, Inc. announced the donations to 13 high schools and two community colleges on Friday.
Most of the GLE SUVs were used for testing and to ensure quality standards. The company said that once quality tests have been completed, the vehicles can’t be sold for customer use or driven on public roads, but they can be used for classroom training.
The vehicles will provide training and help automakers grow a future workforce, Michael Goebel, president and chief executive of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc., said in a statement.
“We have found a sustainable solution to re-purpose vehicles that would have been destroyed at the end of their test cycle and diverted them instead for an educational purpose,“ he said.
Located between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, the Mercedes factory employs more than 4,400 people and provides more than 10,000 additional jobs at suppliers and service providers. The company is spending $1 billion on a second location that will include a new battery plant to prepare for the assembly of electric vehicles.
