By Dawn Kent -- The Birmingham News
The 2013 GL-Class SUV is unveiled at the Mercedes-Benz assembly plant in Tuscaloosa County on June 28. (News file/Mark Almond)
The redesigned, 2013 Mercedes-Benz GL-Class SUV, which is produced at the German automaker's Alabama factory, is featured on the cover of the September issue of Automotive Design and Production magazine.
Mercedes unveiled the new GL-Class in June and recently began shipping it to dealers for its sales launch.
The cover story on the GL examines the new features of the full-sized luxury SUV, which starts at around $62,000.
The magazine also notes a little history of the Tuscaloosa County factory, which currently produces the M-Class SUV and the R-Class crossover alongside the GL:
Mercedes invested in excess of $2-billion in the plant to prepare for the production of the 2012 M-Class, the 2013 GL, and the C-Class. At the time of the 2012 M-Class launch in July 2011, Dr. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the Daimler Board of Management and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, said, "We're continuing to write new chapters of the plant's success story with significant investments into the future. Tuscaloosa was the first production location of Mercedes-Benz Cars ever outside Germany, and today it is among our best. As our 'pioneering plant,' it is also the blueprint for our new operations in emerging markets."
The plant will add production of the C-Class sedan in 2014 and another, unnamed model in 2015.