CHARLESTON, S.C. — Mercedes-Benz Vans has announced it will be constructing a half-billion dollar van plant in South Carolina.

The plant will host production of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter full-sized van. Until now, Sprinter vans were assembled overseas but due to high US import duties, they had to be taken apart and then reassembled in the US. This added cost and complexity to the process. Building the vans in the US will also shorten delivery times, the company announced.

(Sprinter vans sold in Canada don’t face the same duties, and can be shipped to Canada from Europe fully assembled).

“Today is a very important day for Mercedes-Benz Vans and certainly also a very significant day for the Charleston area. We are investing around half a billion dollars to create a top-notch Mercedes-Benz van plant here in South Carolina. This plant is key to our future growth in the very dynamic North American van market,” said Volker Mornhinweg, head of Mercedes-Benz Vans, at the official announcement of the plant’s location. “Charleston is an excellent location for our new plant. The region has very highly skilled workers, a dense network of reliable suppliers, and an outstanding logistics infrastructure that includes good transport connections to the nearby harbor.”

The new plant will create about 1,300 new jobs.