Twenty years after it opened to finish partly built vans shipped from Europe, the Mercedes-Benz Vans plant in Ladson is working with kits again. Its name is also now on the front of the Charleston Battery’s jerseys.

The plant launched cab chassis complete-knock-down operations in December 2025, according to a Mercedes-Benz Group page on its production network, which lists cab chassis among the plant’s products alongside the Sprinter and eSprinter panel vans. In knock-down production, a vehicle arrives as a kit of parts and is assembled at the plant. A cab chassis is a cab on a bare frame, without the enclosed cargo area of a panel van.

The same page says the Charleston plant is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2026. It was founded in April 2006 as DaimlerChrysler Manufacturing International and renamed Mercedes-Benz Vans LLC in January 2016, according to the company.

From kits to a full factory

The plant opened in 2006 to reassemble partially built vans shipped from Europe in kits, the Post and Courier reported. In 2021 it marked 15 years of semi-knockdown production in South Carolina, Mercedes-Benz Group says.

The company announced its expansion in March 2015, saying it would begin manufacturing vans in South Carolina with a half-billion-dollar investment and 1,300 new jobs, according to the S.C. Governor’s Office.

The resulting expansion, which opened in 2018 at a cost of more than $500 million, added a body shop, a paint shop and an extension of the existing assembly shop so the plant could build Sprinters part by part, according to Mercedes-Benz Group. The plant built its 100,000th part-by-part Sprinter in 2022 and set a record in 2023 with more than 50,000 vans, the company says.

Since 2006, the Ladson plant has assembled more than 430,000 Metris, Sprinter and eSprinter vans for customers in the U.S. and Canada, Mercedes-Benz Group says on a page last updated in June 2026. The U.S. is the second-largest market for Sprinter vans after Germany, the company says.

The electric van

Charleston was the first plant in the Mercedes-Benz Vans network to build what the company calls the all-new eSprinter, an investment of nearly $60 million, according to the company. Production started in January 2024, and the plant built its 1,000th eSprinter four months later.

In 2025, the plant celebrated assembling the 5 millionth Sprinter built worldwide, an eSprinter that went to FedEx, Mercedes-Benz said. Sprinters and eSprinters are also built in Düsseldorf and Ludwigsfelde, Germany, according to Mercedes-Benz Group.

People and leadership

Mercedes-Benz Group says the plant has more than 1,600 team members and that suppliers provide at least 500 more jobs on site. A separate company page puts the workforce at around 1,700.

Johannes Kellermann became president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Vans LLC on March 1, 2025, the company announced in October 2024. He succeeded Axel Bense, who left to run the Mercedes-Benz plant in Jawor, Poland. Kellermann joined the company in 2009 and was most recently head of operations at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Ludwigsfelde, the announcement said.

Last fall the plant started a youth training program with the Community Resource Center and the Charleston County School District for high school seniors interested in manufacturing careers. Students from Burke, North Charleston, R.B. Stall, West Ashley and Baptist Hill high schools were to take weekly hands-on classes taught by plant technicians and trainers, the company said in November 2025.

The program “gives students real advantage in the job market,” Kellermann said in the announcement.

“As we grow, our goal is to create a steady pathway from high school to meaningful employment with MBV Charleston and other manufacturing partners,” said Matthew Hamrick, the plant’s head of human resources.

On the field

On Aug. 17, the Charleston Battery named the plant its presenting partner and front-of-kit sponsor for the rest of the 2026 season. The two had been partners since the start of the year, and the plant remains the club’s official STEM sponsor, the Battery said. The new jerseys were set to debut at the club’s Aug. 22 home match against Miami FC, the club said.

“The Battery have been a cornerstone of the Lowcountry for generations, and we are honored to expand our partnership,” Kellermann said in the club’s announcement.

“We’re incredibly proud to welcome Mercedes-Benz Vans Charleston as our Presenting Partner and to have their brand represented on the front of our jersey,” said Lee Cohen, the Battery’s president.

The plant has donated more than $2.1 million to local nonprofits and schools through STEM programs since 2006, Mercedes-Benz Group says.

Two decades after the first kits arrived from Europe, the plant that grew into a full factory has added kit assembly back to its lineup.