German car maker Daimler officially announced its plans to invest EUR 300 million in Romania, where it will expand Daimler's existing Star Transmission production facility. The move comes to supplement production as Daimler's Stuttgart factory has reached maximum capacity. Star Transmission has two production units in Romania, at Cugir and at Sebes, where 800 employees have been manufacturing components for motors and transmissions for all Mercedes-Benz cars since 2001.

Daimler will start production of the 5-speed automatic transmission from the middle of this year at the new location in Sebes until its discontinuation. Starting in 2014, the current generation of front dual clutch transmissions will also be assembled there. “The expansion of our production network to include an additional location for transmission assembly is designed to perfectly complement our existing capacities,” said Andreas Renschler, Member of the Daimler Board of Management for Manufacturing and Procurement Mercedes-Benz Cars and Mercedes-Benz Vans.

The German investor also plans to involve the Sebes production unit in manufacturing its new generation of automatic transmissions for cars, but the decision is subject to the support of the Romanian government for the expansion of the production capacities.

Peter Schabert, Head of Powertrain Production and Head of the Mercedes-Benz Untertürkheim plant, added: “Star Transmission has been a reliable partner of our German powertrain locations for over 10 years. According to the current planning status and based on our excellent experience with Star Transmission, the preferred option for providing the additionally required assembly capacities in a flexible manner is to expand the activities there."

The investment had been announced by the Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who chose not to disclose the name of the investor however, leaving room for media speculation before the recent official statement from Daimler.

Two other large car makers have production facilities in Romania, Renault and Ford, both producing cars in the country.