Daimler AG is piling up thousands of Mercedes Benz GLE sport utility vehicles at the former Ahlhorn airport close to Bremen, Germany as issues with one of its suppliers caused delivery delays.
GLE sport models are stored in blocks, stretching across the paved surface at the ex-military airport. The SUVs, which begin at around $56,000, were manufactured in the United States for the European markets.
Four profit warnings have been issued by Daimler in over a year. The most recent one issued in the month of July, when slow model ramp-up was included as a major reason for trimming its full year guidance. During that time, Ola Kallenius, CEO, Daimler highlighted problems with the firm’s utility cars on a once in every 3 months earnings call. Issues with one of the suppliers in the United States led to production bottlenecks, said Kallenius at that time.
A spokeswoman for Daimler confirmed that these stored vehicles are associated to production issue with GLE. She, however, refused to disclose information about the no. of cars being stored at the former airport.
Temporary storage of cars is a normal process, said the spokeswoman in a statement.
Notably, this is not the first time that a German automobile company had to store inventory in an airport. Previously, Volkswagen Group had leased out several spots at the Brandernburg airport in Berlin as the company rushed to get its cars approved before the beginning of new regulations related to emissions.
