production of the electric Mercedes CLA at the Rastatt plant has already started That means the carmaker is well ahead of schedule One possible explanation is that Mercedes is reportedly set to open its order books on 29 April instead of mid-June which is usually very well informed about Mercedes-Benz “We are currently in the ramp-up phase,” a Mercedes spokesperson commented on the information to JESMB pilot production in small quantities is over and production at the compact car plant in Rastatt Mercedes presented the series version of the CLA in mid-March The 260 kW all-wheel-drive version called the CLA 350 4MATIC will not be available until a little later while the CLA 250+ rear-wheel-drive version with a particularly long range will be available at the start This only has the aforementioned eATS 2.0 on the rear axle but the same 85-kWh battery with up to 320 kW charging power as the all-wheel drive model a charging time of 22 minutes from 10 to 80 per cent is possible a range of up to 792 kilometres according to WLTP should be possible Mercedes will accept orders earlier than planned (i.e the sales managers of the respective branches informed the sales staff that the order release for the CLA will be brought forward to 29.04.2025” this only affects the CLA 250+; the order release for the CLA 350 4MATIC is still scheduled for mid-June JESMB estimates the base price in Germany for the CLA 250+ at around €51,000 for the version with 17-inch rims classic door handles and manual seat adjustment Higher equipment levels with aerodynamically retractable and electrically extendable door handles electric seat adjustment and other extras are likely to be significantly more expensive The large MBUX Superscreen will not be available until August 2025 anyway the unofficial order release for major customers has already taken place The CLA 250+ EQ is available there as a Business Edition (special Benelux model) for 56,870 euros (incl This price already includes metallic paintwork the panoramic roof and the two separate displays (10.25-inch cockpit display and 14-inch infotainment touchscreen) The CLA 250+ Sport Edition from €59,895 (again including 21 per cent Belgian VAT) already includes the AMG Line a dual-zone climate control system and the Night package with tinted windows from the B-pillar upwards As an ‘Essential Line’ is also available in Belgium from 53,240 euros JESMB estimates the price at around 51,500 euros the packages customised for the Benelux countries are not offered in this form in other countries jesmb.de (production; in German), jesmb.de (orders; in German) I agree with the Privacy policy electrive has been following the development of electric mobility with journalistic passion and expertise since 2013. 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All rights reserved Metrics details An Author Correction to this article was published on 16 February 2021 This article has been updated Transport networks are becoming increasingly large and interconnected This interconnectivity is a key enabler of accessibility; on the other hand in case any specific part is subject to disruptions We analyse how railway systems are vulnerable to delay and how delays propagate in railway networks studying real-life delay propagation phenomena on empirical data determining real-life impact and delay propagation for the uncommon case of railway disruptions We take a unique approach by looking at the same system to disentangle processes and dynamics that are normally present and co-occurring in railway operations We exploit the unique chance to observe a systematic change in railway operations conditions without a correspondent system change of infrastructure or timetable coming from the occurrence of the large-scale disruption at Rastatt We define new statistical methods able to detect weak signals in the noisy dataset of recorded punctuality for passenger traffic in Switzerland We determine how delay propagation changed large-scale cascading effects of the Rastatt disruption towards the Swiss network Operational measures of transport performance (i.e had a statistically relevant positive increase (though very geographically heterogeneous) on the Swiss passenger traffic during the disruption period We identify two factors for this: (1) the reduced delay propagation at an international scale; and (2) to a minor extent rerouted railway freight traffic; which show to combine linearly in the observed outcomes disruptive events triggered in a specific limited area result in a degradation of performance The system stabilizes at a less performing state and finally recovers with a certain rapidity towards its original performance The mechanisms of delay propagation directly reflect the complex concurrent and co-occurring processes characteristics of railway operations how railway systems are vulnerable to small reduced performance) through comparison of the same railway system in two operating conditions We exploit a unique chance in the real world to observe a systematic change in railway operations based on empirical data without the typically co-occurring changes in infrastructure or timetable given by the large-scale railway disruption at Rastatt The quantification of delay propagation clarifies how the disruption had a measurable effect on the Swiss network and routes are required to operate services Routing alternatives can avoid a disruption but those are typically scarce as infrastructure is not available and public transport services are bound to run at some planned times only the network exhibits continuous characteristics (vehicles can use links at any time) and discrete characteristics (few vehicles We fill this gap in the literature of railway delay propagation models by studying the Swiss railway system in two uniquely different states on 1 year of empirically recorded data of passenger railway traffic We exploit the occurrence of the major disruption at Rastatt blocking the major railway European corridor for 2 months to study how changes in observed railway delay propagation can be traced back to different We define multiple novel metrics and statistical methods to compare the disrupted and undisrupted state We distinguish (explicit) mechanisms that we can associate beyond a certain level of confidence to the disruption itself and disturbances that happened irrelevant of the disruption and with no precisely identifiable root cause and quantify the effects of the Rastatt disruption towards delay propagation in the Swiss network We graphically report the time series of the 20th, 40th, 60th, and 80th percentile values of the delays of all long-distance passenger trains arriving at Basel SBB from Germany. We consider a moving average over 7 days, over the course of the timetable years 2017 and 2018. Recorded arrival delays (moving average of daily 20th 80th percentile values) of trains arriving in Basel SBB from Germany dates not influenced by the Rastatt disruption; in red where the moving average spans disrupted and undisrupted dates Table 1 reports the quantitative evaluation using the novel metrics proposed \(I_{diff}\) quantifies the likelihood that the single shocks at beginning and end of the disruption occur elsewhere throughout the data (the higher the more exceptional the observed behavior was during the disruption) \(I_{sum}\) quantifies the likelihood that the combined shocks at beginning and recovery at the end of the disruption occur elsewhere throughout the data (the higher the more exceptional the observed behavior was during disruption) Both indicators report that the change during this period is rare (half of \(I_{diff}\) and \(I_{sum}\) are higher than 0.9) especially those for the highest percentile levels The KS-test reports the statistical significance of the pattern observed in a 2 months horizon quantifying the likelihood that the samples observed within the disruption belong to the same distribution than before and after the disruption (the lower The t-test reports the statistical significance of the pattern observed over the entire year quantifying the likelihood that the samples observed during the disruption have the same mean as the data observed outside of the disruption Both statistical tests report the significance of the variation and smaller strength in Rheinfelden and Olten probably due to the different timetable structure and services running both KS-test and t-test metrics reported significance The Mean Quantile Deviation (MQD) gives the magnitude of the variation observed with the higher percentiles showing a larger decrease the decrease of the 80th percentile is more than 6 min and 60% of the traffic had its delay reduced by a minute or more the effect is a reduction of delay by around 30 s up to almost 80 s for the highest percentile; the strongly delayed trains performed better in the disruption period i.e the median delay has been ranging between 120 and 300 s throughout year 2017 Due to the disruption, freight trains running on the Rhine Alpine corridor have been globally rerouted or cancelled. Figure 3 reports the absolute difference in number of freight trains actually running in the Swiss network on an average month of the disrupted period compared with an average month in 2017 The different rail corridors have different total infrastructure capacity and different ratio of passenger/freight trains The increase in the Schaffhausen-Zürich corridor (red normally 500–1000 freight trains per month) is relatively much stronger than the decrease in the Basel–Gotthard corridor (violet normally 1500–2500 freight trains per month) Observed change in monthly volume of freight train traffic during the disrupted period. Figure designed with R v3.6.3 https://cran.r-project.org:, package ggswissmaps v0.1.1 https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggswissmaps/ The reversion to a normal state at the end of the disruption as identified by the cumulative shocks considered by \(I_{sum}\) after the disruption the operation changed immediately back to the Rhine Alpine corridor which offered faster travel times and larger infrastructure capacity The freight corridor used by the additional freight trains avoids major stations and had smaller and less significant impact to Schaffhausen and Zürich where passenger and freight traffic must necessarily interact the effect is strongest with almost half of the traffic facing an additional delay by half a minute or more; both KS-test and t-test show significance one or more orders of magnitude smaller than \(\alpha\) = 0.01 the delay increase identified is remarkably different from the delay reduction seen for the Basel area hinting at a strong heterogeneity between the two areas with strongest impacts through microscopic delay propagation along the corridor The quantitative analysis is in good agreement with the observed actions We performed the same analysis for a Swiss train station of comparable size and traffic that according to general theories of disruption impact should have low or even unquantifiable effects The data (reported as supplementary material) shows no specific evidence or special effect in the disrupted period with \(I_{diff}\) and \(I_{sum}\) mostly around 0.5 The t-test identifies some significant changes for half of the stations investigated while the KS-test identifies only one significant observation We trace this to a large variability of yearly operations and the variability encountered during the disruption has been no different than otherwise throughout the year This shows also how a single metric cannot describe the complexity and noise in the data and a variation with both fast and persistent dynamics no clear and generalized variation of performance is evident elsewhere in Switzerland during the Rastatt disruption The stations near Basel and Schaffhausen experienced a variation during the disruption which was not significantly experienced in the rest of the Swiss network This matches well the currently accepted theory of spreading of disturbances throughout networks which identifies a maximum geographical dimension of the impact and its calibration for the test case) can partially replicate the degree by which the delay performance of passenger trains improved in the area of Basel we aim to identify which root cause is responsible for which observed effects disentangling the effects of co-occurring actions We compute the delay of passenger trains in the baseline condition (for a typical day immediately before the disruption) and for a typical day during the disruption by a calibrated mesoscopic stochastic simulation in OnTime considering all traffic (passenger and freight) running in the Swiss network Figure 4 reports the variation in median delay from undisrupted to disrupted situation (green-red color mapped between \(-30\) to \(+30\) s for all individual stations and measurement points where trains pass and/or stop green reports a delay decrease during a disruption) of all passenger traffic originated in the focal points at Basel or Schaffhausen for the recorded data (left) and simulated traffic (right) a good agreement between the observed and simulated variation of delay propagation is present especially when filtered by the volume of traffic (i.e The variation along a line might be discontinuous and have different stopping patterns; this stresses the need for a detailed study A set of 8 station areas is analysed more in detail, including Basel, Olten, Schaffhausen, Bülach, Zürich discussed before, as well as Bern, in the interior of the country, south of Basel; St. Gallen and Chur towards the east of the country. Table 3 shows and for the observed and simulated conditions the variation of the median arrival delays (in s) between the undisrupted and the disrupted situation for the observed value; the attribution of the delay variation estimated by the simulation to reduced entrance delay or freight rerouting; and the daily amount of trains considered Confidence intervals of the observations are the largest relatively far from the focal node resulting in less delay observations (Bern as well as at stations with a major change in median delays (Basel OnTime models well the sign and relative size of the variations All stations connected to Basel enjoy a reduction of delays while in reality the delay substantially worsened This mismatch depends on the modelling of the entrance of freight trains in the network which does not conflict with the arrival delay of trains at Schaffhausen The stations connected to Schaffhausen are correctly identified having an increase in delay (see Bülach); in Zürich The effects for Schaffhausen and Chur affect much less traffic than busy stations like Basel We simulate separately the individual effects of the two explicit changes modelled during the disruption to understand their respective role and impact The total net effect is the sum of two opposite effects: the improvement in entrance punctuality at Basel has positive effects on the network about twice as strong than the worsening due to rerouting of freight traffic Graphical representation of effects across Switzerland. Left: observations; right: simulation. Figure designed with R v3.6.3 https://cran.r-project.org:, package ggswissmaps v0.1.1 https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggswissmaps/ Transport networks are subject to large-scale changes due to sudden disruptions (i.e earthquakes; infrastructure collapse; terrorist attacks; pandemics or other limitations to mobility) We exploit those changes as they expose mechanisms which are typically co-occurring and mediated by other factors to understand railway delay propagation dynamics the Rhine Alpine corridor from the Netherlands and northern Germany to southern Germany and this had a measurable effect on delay propagation on a large part of the Swiss network By using the delay of passenger trains as a measure of the network performance over more than a year worth of operational data the shocks in delay propagation experienced related to the disruption could be separated from the overall spurious variations and noise in operations performance passenger trains were entering in Switzerland from Germany with lower potentially accumulated delay and freight trains were circulating in reduced number and entering the country at a different boundary point Due to the high variability encountered over this long duration and large geographical extent typical statistical tests have limited strength in identifying the difference in delay propagation and isolate the contribution of the disruption Newly designed statistical tests were applied to delay analysis in railway networks and two specific factors (reduced entrance delay for passenger trains and rerouted freight trains) They could significantly differentiate the variations in passenger train delays from the noise Their respective magnitude has been quantified by simulation The system-wide delay propagation dynamic has been described with a reduction of delays from Basel propagating along the network during the period with smaller and less identifiable effects farther away where the magnitude of other spurious effects becomes relatively larger stronger non-performance) the reduction in delays propagation was larger than for low percentile values meaning particularly the strongly delayed trains performed better in the disruption period with an overall stabilizing effect of improved performance The variability of delays in real-life operations is extremely high; no model of first order or second order or with a time series analysis could explain all the observed variance of the data The simulation model used could replicate some effects with a high degree but a lot of improvised and non standard business rules in the aftermath of a disruption challenge the mathematical power of such models at the level of precise nodes this work proves that railway disruptions behave distinctively over time it has been observed that a shorter circulation of international trains (travelling between Germany and Switzerland) contributed to substantially better delay performance in an entire region How to integrate this finding in timetable design and balance punctuality against the comfort of the passengers that would need to transfer between two more punctual trains A disruption is assumed to lead to a significant change in a very short term to the time series (i.e which remains for a certain amount of time corresponding to the entire disruption duration (persistent degradation) and a significant opposite change at its end (i.e The pattern of railway delays is generally highly variable; any difference between any day in the disrupted period and any day in the non-disrupted period can also be imputed to many other sources co-occurring The goal is to quantify the probability that a difference between two consecutive samples in a time series is a spurious product of existing noises happening at the same dates as the disruption we assume the variation observed is imputable to the disruption to identify in time series a fast persistent and recovered disruption as a shock To avoid biases from the variations of the timetable within the day (peak hours nights) and week (reduced service at weekends) we focus on percentile levels (\(p\in P=\{20 80\}\)) of the time series of observed arrival delays collected across seven consecutive days max) as those might be traced to vehicle failures and result in cancelled services For any percentile level \(p \in P\) and any day \(i \in I\) let \(d_{i,p}\) be the difference between the p-th percentile of the 7 days right before day i The distribution \(D_{p}\) describes the probability of the difference between the percentile at weekly scope (D refers to the set of all \(D_{p}\)s) Specifically in this distribution \(D_{p}\) relating to the beginning/end of the disruption b/e (respectively) \(d_{b,p}\) is the difference between the p-th percentile delays of the 7 days before the disruption and the respective value of the first 7 days in the disrupted period; \(d_{e,p}\) is analogously the difference between the p-th percentile delays of the 7 days before the end of the disrupted period with the mean value of the 7 days after the disruption end The hypothesis to test is whether those differences are significant if \(d_{b,p}\) and \(d_{e,p}\) are common values in the distribution \(D_{p}\) the disruption did not have significant effects; if those two values are extreme events Two metrics \(I_{diff}\) and \(I_{sum}\) respectively describe how likely (based on the observed samples) the differences computed for the beginning and end shock are to be found in the overall distribution of \(D_p\) throughout the entire time series Each \(I_{diff,p}\) determines the likelihood that any two periods of two consecutive weeks have a minimum variation in delay as large as the minimum between the one observed at the beginning and end of the disruption Each \(I_{sum,p}\) determines the likelihood that any two consecutive periods of 1 week have a cumulative absolute variation in delay as large as the cumulative absolute variation in delay observed at begin and end of the disruption Both metrics can take values between 0 and 1 the more infrequent the change observed at the date of begin/end of the disruption is in terms of absolute variation (\(I_{diff,p}\)) or cumulative shock and recovery (\(I_{sum,p}\)) The usage of percentiles enables understanding if the small delays (low p) observed during the disruption are more unlikely Both metrics are based on the ideas of a rank Wilcoxon test This test ignores small fast variations which might be considered shocks by the indicators \(I_{diff}\) and \(I_{sum}\) or adjusted timetable in case of short events (maintenance As the disruption lasted more than 2 months to determine a baseline for the hypothetical delay distribution (baseline set) during the disruption period The delay distribution during the 4 weeks immediately after the beginning of the disruption and the 4 weeks immediately before the disruption end is taken as description of delay distribution during the disruption (disrupted set) These two distributions are compared by a two-sample Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) test aiming to reject the Null Hypothesis \(H_0\) that any two samples in the baseline and disrupted set we refer to a significance level \(\alpha = 0.01\) This test is repeated as \(KS_p\) for all given percentile levels p considered at daily aggregation This gives a synthetic baseline of the expected value of the percentile levels We compare the synthetic baseline in the disruption period with the real observed values a t-test aims to reject the Null Hypothesis \(H_0\) that there is no difference between the delay of the baseline time series and the observed time series We repeat this t-test for all given percentile levels p considered at daily aggregation we use a significance level \(\alpha = 0.01\) an absolute metric of the deviation magnitude (measured in seconds) is reported as the Mean Quantile Deviation (MQD) between the observed data during the disruption and the synthetically generated baseline data used also in the t-test A positive deviation is an increase in the delay during the disruption; a negative deviation is a decrease in the delay during the disruption when a simulator and related calibrated parameters would be available OnTime considers the entire daily timetable over 24 h respectively 9181 passenger trains (1126 long-distance trains The model has been further calibrated to match the baseline (1 week before the disruption) and disrupted (during the disruption when the amount and route of freight traffic entering Switzerland stabilized) by adjusting the number of freight trains running and the input punctuality of passenger trains entering Switzerland from Germany the figure of merit of the calibration was the quantile absolute deviation (QAD) between the measured entrance delay in the Swiss network (upstream of Basel SBB) and the one considered in OnTime We used affine variations for the parameters of the delay distributions (same values for all affected trains) The entrance delay of passenger trains has been changed The number of freight trains was changed as in the observed data over a total of 116 areas of the national railway network Additional freight trains are considered in the corridor Schaffhausen–Zürich–Gotthard and fewer freight trains are considered in the corridor Basel–Zürich–Gotthard we decreased the train-path usage of freight the trains are stochastically running with a lower probability; 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Manag. 3, 137–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrtpm.2013.10.009 (2013) Seeing what is not there: the impact of the rastatt disruption to swiss railway traffic Download references Institute for Transport Planning and Systems The authors declare no competing interests Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75538-z Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science info@accioncultural.es  +34 91 700 4000  José Abascal EXPLOREAbout Us   Activities   PICE Grants   Residencies ACE   Cultural Network   Multimedia   Sitemap   ​Newsletter   Logo and credit for AC/E AC/E Alerts Cookies are small text files that websites can use to make a user's experience more efficient The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this website This website uses different types of cookies Some cookies are placed by third-party services that appear on our pages You can change or withdraw your consent at any time from the Cookie Declaration on our website and how we process personal data in our Privacy Policy Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website The website cannot function properly without these cookies Preference cookies allow a website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable to publishers and third-party advertisers Daimler's Mercedes-Benz Cars plant at Rastatt has marked two milestones: production of its five millionth compact vehicle since A-Class production began back in 1997 and roll-off of the first new A-Class sedan taking the automaker into yet another new market segment Daimler's Mercedes-Benz Cars plant at Rastatt has marked two milestones: production of its five millionth compact vehicle since A-Class production began back in 1997 and roll-off of its first new A-Class sedan Rastatt is usually a lead plant [aka 'mother plant'] for Mercedes-Benz Cars and is now producing four compact models (A- and B-Class at the COMPAS (Cooperation Manufacturing Plant Aguascalientes) joint venture production plant in Mexico also went into production at Beijing Benz in the third quarter the third plant to come on stream with this new model line "The production of the five millionth compact vehicle highlights the Rastatt plant's importance as the lead plant for compacts in addition to which it is ideally prepared for an upcoming EQ compact electric vehicle," said site manager Thomas Geier The latest Mercedes compact car line is being produced at five locations The compact cars line comprises seven models: A-Class Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis The A-Class sedan runs on the same Rastatt lines as the hatchback and GLA The new sedan brings the body style back to Rastatt after over 20 years The 210 series E-Class was produced there until 1996 before the first A-Class A EQ electric model will also be produced at the plant The compact car production network comprises plants in Kecskemet (Hungary) Aguascalientes (Mexico) and Hambach (France) Nominations are now open for the prestigious Just Auto Excellence Awards - one of the industry's most recognised programmes celebrating innovation This is your chance to showcase your achievements Don't miss the opportunity to be honoured among the best - submit your nomination today Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights View all newsletters from across the GlobalData Media network By clicking here, you agree to our Terms and Conditions and consent to us collection your details for the purposes of your enquiry By 2017-08-23T08:09:27+01:00 In order to accommodate as many as possible of the 200 freight trains which normally use Corridor 1 each day Rompf said DB Netze was ‘working intensively’ to free up as much capacity as it could on its diversionary routes Reutlingen and Plochingen is already available while engineering work now underway on the electrified Gäubahn between Stuttgart and Singen will be wrapped up by September 5 EUROPE: In a bid to avoid the widespread disruption to international rail traffic which occurred following the tunnel collapse at Rastatt in August 2017 and to provide greater resilience for commercially sensitive traffic a coalition of rail freight operators and industry associations has put together a Contingency .. EUROPE: Rail freight operators are working to implement diversionary routes for north-south intermodal traffic after German infrastructure manager DB Netze confirmed that the key Karlsruhe – Basel section of Rhine-Alpine Rail Freight Corridor 1 would remain closed for an estimated six weeks following a tunnel collapse at Rastatt on August .. GERMANY: A groundbreaking ceremony was held in Niederbühl on July 30 to launch a €693m project to build a new double-track alignment through Rastatt This forms part of a programme to provide four tracks in place of two to increase capacity on the Rhine Valley corridor between Karlsruhe and Basel Site powered by Webvision Cloud Don't have an account? Subscribe “Our goal is to help stakeholders understand the future of mobility.” Home › News Releases › Transformation plan for the Mercedes-Benz Rastatt plant: Mercedes-Benz Rastatt Plant to Invest 1 Billion Euros for Production of Next Generation Compact Cars The Mercedes-Benz Rastatt plant will also produce the next generation of Mercedes-Benz compact cars Daimler will invest around one billion euros in the further technological development and expansion of production at the location within the framework of the “Transformation Plan” for the Rastatt plant the company and Works Council have agreed a package of measures that will lead to significant improvements in the location’s competitive position and ensure stable employment for the next years This includes more flexible working time arrangements and overall cost savings in the triple-digit million euro range the Mercedes-Benz Rastatt plant will create 250 new permanent jobs The agreement will run until the end of 2024 “With our transformation plan for the Mercedes-Benz Rastatt plant we have laid the foundation for the successful production of the next generation of our compact cars We will achieve significant gains in flexibility and efficiency we will strengthen the role of the location as the lead plant for compact cars within our global production network” Member of the Divisional Board of Mercedes-Benz Cars Capacity utilization at the Mercedes-Benz Rastatt plant which has a workforce of around 6,500 employees the plant posted a new production record of 292,784 vehicles and thus contributed significantly to the growth seen in the successful compact car segment: In 2014 unit sales grew by 24.7 percent to 463,152 vehicles of the A-Class Mercedes-Benz has never before delivered so many compact cars in a single year a new sales record was achieved in the first five months of 2015 The success story of the Mercedes-Benz compact cars began in 1997 with the market launch of the A-Class over four million customers have opted for an A-Class In line with the Mercedes-Benz 2020 growth strategy the Mercedes-Benz Rastatt plant will significantly increase its production in the coming years “The transformation plan for the Mercedes-Benz Rastatt plant has been pivotal for us as we could secure the production for our next generation compact cars Our growth course will lead to significant improvements in economic efficiency and will secure employment at the location for the long term The investment of around one billion euros provides is a clear proof that we trust in the motivation and professional competence of the workforce at this location which delivers top quality on a daily basis” Site Manager of the Mercedes-Benz Rastatt plant the Rastatt plant will maintain the number of vocational training positions over several years and will offer trainees the opportunity for a permanent job after the successful completion of their programs the location trains 70 apprentices and dual university students each year The agreement also includes extensive measures for improving ergonomic working conditions including 250,000 euros per year that will be reserved from the investment total for ergonomic measures which can be implemented on short notice which is currently in the planning stage and will require further investments Chairman of the Works Council of the Mercedes-Benz Rastatt plant: “With the significant investments and the conservation of our previous number of vocational training positions the Rastatt location has been placed on a secured foundation for the future that we were able to push and agree upon these items This is a very positive signal for the workforce One particularly important issue for us are the investments to improve ergonomics and address the demographic change.” Let us help you understand the future of mobility Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" and trends shaping the future of electric mobility Tickets for this in-person event are limited and trends shaping the future of the software-defined vehicle and trends shaping the future of autonomous mobility Mercedes-Benz is set to make a technological leap in 2025 The model will be based on a new platform and will bring 800-volt technology to the carmaker's range a mid-size SUV will also follow shortly afterwards on this platform citing experts from AutoForecast Solutions production of the internally named X174 model is set to start in October 2025 at the Rastatt plant The model would then be delivered from the first half of 2026 The report explicitly refers to a ‘Tesla Model Y fighter’ – this is not our wording At the IAA Mobility in September 2023, Mercedes gave a preview of the upcoming CLA and the underlying Mercedes Modular Architecture (MMA) platform with the Concept CLA Class study The MMA is a newly developed platform for smaller Mercedes models The development was based on the ‘Electric First’ principle: The MMA was designed and optimised for electric drives but can also accommodate combustion engines The MMA is also expected to support bidirectional charging – specifically vehicle-to-home (V2H) or vehicle-to-grid (V2G) It has already been confirmed that Mercedes will build electric cars based on the MMA in three factories: in Rastatt, Germany the crossover will roll off the production line together with the CLA in Rastatt is quoted in the report as saying that the EQB will not be directly replaced once production ends late in 2025 As Mercedes has already abandoned the ‘EQ’ nomenclature with the electric G-Class it is also unlikely that the new model will be launched as the EQB A Mercedes spokesperson declined to comment on the product plans to Automotive News Mercedes would place the model series in a particularly popular but also highly competitive segment There has yet to be any speculation on the model’s prices dimensions or performance data; the Model Y is 4.75 metres long the Model Y even offers a similar amount of space although the latter is longer at 4.90 metres Adding a crossover to the CLA model range could make economic sense: The model has so far brought many young and and an SUV could significantly expand the target group autonews.com (paywall) electrive has been following the development of electric mobility with journalistic passion and expertise since 2013 we offer comprehensive coverage of the highest quality — as a central platform for the rapid development of this technology Meet Felix Wiedmann and Yannick Bitterwolf who are part of the Getinge team in Rastatt one of the world’s smallest heart-lung machines The activity is high in the Rastatt factory where Getinge’s small and lightweight heart-lung support system Cardiohelp is assembled “There is a big demand on the market During the pandemic it has increased even more since our solutions are needed to treat the most critically ill COVID-19 patients,” tells Felix Wiedmann he started working in the assembly line and today he is responsible for the entire production of heart-lung machines and hyperthermia devices in Rastatt “We are a great team achieving incredible things together I particularly like the fact that we always face challenges together and solve them in the best possible way as a team,” he says is used during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) an approach in which the machine and disposables take over the function of the heart and/or lungs to deliver oxygen to the body remove carbon dioxide or help the heart pump blood Getinge's ECMO machines are designed to keep critically ill patients alive while giving their damaged hearts and/or lungs time to recover or as a bridge until further therapy is possible “Cardiohelp drives a blood pump which takes on the role of the heart’s pump function while an oxygenator works as an artificial lung We all feel the responsibility that comes with building products that are so significant in saving lives During the pandemic we have become even more aware of how important these devices are,” explains Felix “Reading and listening to reports from intensive care units lately has made us increasingly aware of the important role our devices play in treatment and preservation of life in situations such as the pandemic.” Yannick has been with Getinge since 2008 and thinks it’s an exciting place to work “It’s especially enjoyable when I am involved in projects to introduce new products into production and get to contribute with my experience from working here for many years.” an extra shift was temporarily added in production “We want to give everything to meet the desired quantities as good as we possibly can I am proud of my team and we are determined to keep performing at our best by building these life-saving devices,” concludes Felix Discover Getinge’s Cardiohelp >> Join Getinge on the journey to become the world’s most trusted and respected medtech company >> This information is intended for an audience outside of the US please contact your local Getinge sales representative With a firm belief that every person and community should have access to the best possible care Getinge provides hospitals and life science institutions with products and solutions that aim to improve clinical results and optimize workflows The offering includes products and solutions for intensive care Getinge employs over 10,000 people worldwide and the products are sold in more than 135 countries Mercedes board member for production Jörg Burzer announces the production of the upcoming electric CLA at the compact car plant in southern Germany The purely electric CLA from Mercedes-Benz, presented as a concept at the IAA will initially be built at the German plant in Rastatt “The CLA will start in the middle of the decade as the first vehicle on the MMA platform in Rastatt,” Burzer says The production model will be presented in 2024 and production in Rastatt will start in 2025 Burzer does not specify the start of production further but not the only production location for the electric compact sedan: After the start of production in Rastatt the CLA will also be built in the plants in Kekscemet (Hungary) and Beijing (China) Burzer does not specify when exactly this will be The Concept CLA Class presented in Munich is supposed to be at the production stage already Mercedes promises a WLTP range of up to 750 kilometres and a consumption of only 12 kWh/100km for the study The 800-volt architecture will be equipped with anodes with silicon oxide content for a particularly high energy density in the range-extending versions – Mercedes does not provide any information on the cathode The entry-level version uses cells with LFP chemistry The study is not only seen as a preview of the CLA it will also form the basis for Mercedes’ upcoming compact model family which will be based on the Mercedes-Benz Modular Architecture (MMA) platform but the “Electric First” principle applies – internal combustion engines are still possible The new compact model family will thus shrink considerably – only four models are planned instead of the current seven In addition to the CLA saloon and a shooting-brake offshoot these will include the (primarily electric) successors to the GLA/EQA and GLB/EQB the A-Class saloon and the B-Class will be dropped without replacement Since both the A- and B-Class are built in Rastatt their demise is likely to impact employees at the site Burzer sees no negative consequences for capacity utilisation: “Despite fewer models than before I do not expect any impact on core employment And we are convinced that we can inspire customers with the products.” The current CLA generation as a combustion engine and plug-in hybrid is built for Europe in Kekscemet where the GLB and the E-version EQB are also manufactured Rastatt is responsible for the A- and B-Class there will be a change when the CLA range moves to the German plant Burzer did not want to comment on further effects yet we are not yet talking about where exactly which derivatives will be localised,” the production board member says Despite focusing on electric cars, Mercedes will continue to manufacture internal combustion engines, hybrids and BEVs on one line. The carmaker will invest in Rastatt for the MMA production; Burzer speaks of an “efficiency gain of around 20 per cent compared to the predecessor model” in terms of productivity The experience gained from the flagship Factory 56 production in Sindelfingen (S-Class and EQS) will be transferred to other plants A leap in productivity will also be possible thanks to the MB.OS operating system which will be used in the new generation of vehicles functions have been uploaded to the ECUs before or after production we can apply updates in every production step This is the next leap on the production side,” says Burzer automobilwoche.de This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page By 2017-09-05T13:17:49 EUROPE: ‘The European system of rail logistics is about to collapse’ warned more than 20 trade bodies on September 4 in an open letter to European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc and German Federal Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt The letter was copied to seven other transport ministers and Josef Doppelbauer Already have an account? LOG IN You’ve reached your limit of content for the month Register for free now By 2018-02-13T07:00:00 EUROPE: Switzerland-based intermodal transport operator Hupac carried 763 101 road consignments by rail in 2017 This was despite the seven-week blockade of the Rhine Valley route near Rastatt which resulted in the loss of more than 30 000 consignments By 2013-08-14T13:17:00 The expected tariff cost is significantly lower than the $4 billion to $5 billion crosstown rival General Motors estimates which Ford attributes to its higher mix of U.S.-built vehicles By 2017-08-21T11:34:18 German premium automaker Mercedes-Benz today announced it has officially started production of the new A-Class at the assembly plant in Rastatt marking the beginning of the new generation of compact cars to be made in five plants on three continents including a new manufacturing facility in Aguascalientes scheduled to commence operations in the second half of the year drove the first vehicle off the assembly line Symbolically the official focused the next A-Class plant: With the infotainment system MBUX and the What3Words address he headed for the Kecskemét plant in Hungary: The address ‘empires-astronaut-handshake’ is leading exactly to the end of the production line where the first A-Class “Made at the Mercedes-Benz Kecskemét plant” will roll off in just a few weeks “Mercedes-Benz Cars starts an unprecedented ramp-up cascade with the A-Class we can ramp-up the production of our vehicles in proven top quality and supply the global market even faster Using modern industry 4.0 technologies our plants are becoming even more flexible and efficient,” said Schäfer The new A-Class is the first model of the fourth generation of compact cars and replaces the predecessor model produced since 2012 The compact car family currently consists of five models: A- Rastatt in Germany is the lead plant for compact cars in the global production network of Mercedes-Benz Cars The plant is responsible for control and planning as well as quality and supplier management on a global basis Rastatt coordinates production in the compact car production network at the Kecskemét plant in Hungary Ltd (BBAC) in China and at the Finnish production partner Valmet Automotive in Uusikaupunki the joint venture production plant COMPAS (Cooperation Manufacturing Plant Aguascalientes) in Aguascalientes will expand the global compact car production network of Mercedes-Benz Cars The production of the A-Class in Kecskemét and at Valmet Automotive will start in the second quarter of 2018 The Rastatt plant supports the smooth ramp-up in the other plants for example by qualifying employees and technical experts on site “Our Rastatt team has done a great job in the last months We have mastered the demanding production program of the current generation of compact cars successfully completed the ramp-up of the new A-Class at our plant and at the same time optimally prepared our colleagues in the other compact car plants,” says Thomas Geier For the start of production of the A-Class apprentices from the Rastatt plant produced a steering wheel model using modern additive production processes (3D printing) The steering wheel has a screen on which employees can upload messages for the next plant in the ramp-up cascade The steering wheel is passed on from plant to plant like a baton and thus travels once around the whole world - Report: Mercedes-Benz to build sedans, crossovers at Mexican plant - Mercedes-Benz to introduce a new A Class sedan to the US market - Mexico-made Mercedes-Benz cars secure at least 70% NAFTA content We’re in the business of providing relevant information through print and electronic media organizing events to bring industrial value chain actors together and services to create new business relationships Our goal is to improve our clients’ competitiveness By 2017-10-02T13:42:43 GERMANY: Following a hiatus of around seven weeks trains began running through the town of Rastatt on the Rhein Valley main line between Karlsruhe and Basel at 01.00 on October 2.The busy freight and passenger artery had been blocked since August 12 when a tunnel beneath the alignment collapsed The expected tariff cost is significantly lower than the $4 billion to $5 billion crosstown rival General Motors estimates, which Ford attributes to its higher mix of U.S.-built vehicles. Return to homepageCopyright © 2025 All Rights Reserved.window.Fusion=window.Fusion||{};Fusion.arcSite="automotivenews";Fusion.contextPath="/pf";Fusion.mxId="00000000";Fusion.deployment="113";Fusion.globalContent={"_id":"K5Q4GDWAVNAA5CWMEM53G4U374","additional_properties":{"alternate_url":"","has_published_copy":true,"sponsor":{}},"canonical_website":"automotivenews","content_elements":[{"_id":"74B7RN4KCZGKNMIKGYLPJO6SDI","content":"Daimler will invest 500 million euros ($589 million) into its plant in Hambach to start producing a compact electric car for Mercedes-Benz which will be part of Mercedes' new EQ electric subbrand will be built alongside the battery-powered version of the Smart ForTwo The company declined to say when it plans to start producing the model which will be the first Mercedes vehicle built in France when output begins a compact-sized electric car with a range of about 400 km and the ability to be recharged without having to be plugged in Daimler plans to launch more than 10 electric vehicles from its Mercedes and Smart brands by 2022 The automaker expects electric models to account for 15 percent to 25 percent of Mercedes' global sales by 2025 Mercedes also plans to make EQ compacts in Rastatt where is currently produces the compact A class and GLA models Mercedes is adapting its vehicle underpinnings so that it can mass produce electric variants on the same production line as equivalent volume models with gasoline allowing the German carmaker to scale up production quickly if demand spikes The first product from the subbrand will be the EQC a midsize SUV model that is scheduled to go into production at Daimler's factory in Bremen The plant currently makes the C-class midsize family the E-class large-car range and the GLC crossover Daimler has also announced plans to make luxury models from EQ subbrand at its factory in Sindelfingen where it makes the S class upper-premium sedan The investment in France will expand assembly facilities and reshape the site's infrastructure Mercedes-Benz announced that it is now using digital twin technology to plan retool and ramp-up production of its new Mercedes Modular Architecture (MMA) platform at its factories in Rastatt the introduction of MMA marks the next step in making the company’s MO360 digital production ecosystem more intelligent The company uses this flexible production system to network dozens of Mercedes-Benz plants worldwide using real-time data hybrid and combustion models on one factory line to scale the production of electric vehicles the new production line for new models on the MMA platform in the Rastatt plant can be modified configured and optimized using high-precision digital simulation techniques supply routes and production lines can be determined and simulated in advance without interrupting the production of the current compact cars A- and B-Class production can be ramped up significantly faster when compared to a conventional planning process The virtual ramp up in Rastatt will serve as a blueprint for the global production network which includes cooperation with the plant in Beijing Mercedes-Benz has created a complete digital depiction of the entire hall for the first time a platform for developing Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) applications for industrial digitalization The digital twin includes the entire building and the infrastructure in it as well as break areas and changing rooms for the employees retooled and inspected virtually while taking into account the need for short distances Mercedes said the virtual ramp-up guarantees the increased speed transparency and flexibility of production processes without the obligation to use cost-intensive hardware Mercedes-Benz can interact directly with its suppliers Using a digital twin doubles the speed for converting or constructing an assembly hall while improving the quality of the processes With the data collected in the virtual world assembly processes can be optimized even faster and potential errors can be detected at an early stage without real-world interference Speaking of the company’s increasing use of digital twin technology chief information officer of Mercedes-Benz Group AG asked: “What if reality becomes a representation of the digital rather than the digital being a representation of reality Our vision in the future is getting trust in digital twins the same as we do in physical reality.” Mercedes noted that the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) with this project opens new areas of energy and cost-savings the Rastatt plant is being used to pioneer digital production in the paint shop AI was used to help create efficiency gains in topcoat booths where vehicle chassis get their paint and protection layers Instead of using a programmable logic controller (PLC) AI handles the monitoring of the relevant sub-processes in the pilot testing which led to energy savings of 20% when compared to conventional PLC control The Mercedes-Benz Operating System (MB.OS) will be used in series production for the first time under this Digital First initiative The company said MB.OS in the vehicle and the technologies in production derived from it enable ten times faster software updates than before while simultaneously increasing the amount of data Due to the direct link of production to the Mercedes Intelligent Cloud (MIC) all vehicles leave the production with up-to-date software This also allows Mercedes-Benz to add to its over-the-air software strategy for vehicles that have already been delivered Software optimizations can be rolled out globally within just a few hours which significantly increases the safety and quality of the vehicles and ensures compliance with increased certification requirements The MIC is directly connected to the MO360 Data Platform within the development The MIC is responsible for software update packages and installation processes Both are linked via an intelligent analysis interface so that every employee can read and analyze the current software status of any vehicle in the network using the MO360 Data Platform This is supported by an app for intelligent defect diagnosis (predictive failure prevention) The app detects potential errors at an early stage and uses an intelligent algorithm during the production process to provide instructions for quality assurance 31 August, 2018 By Collapse of the Rastatt tunnel in Germany during construction last summer was unforeseeable by the contractor The TBM and bore were backfilled with concrete following the collapse DB Netz said that the “accident was unforeseeable” for the contractor as part of its due diligence in the latest extension of the contract announced in the Official Journal of the European Union The tunnel boring machine and bore were backfilled with concrete to stabilise the area Initial investigations focused on failure of the precast segmental lining behind the tunnelling shield and the use of ground freezing techniques with just 5m of cover between the tunnel and live rail lines above No details of the investigation into the collapse have yet been released but DB Netz has issued a number of contract extensions for the contacting joint venture which involves both Hochtief Solution and Züblin The subsequent contract extensions have focused on recovery and repair of the tunnel and the latest extension for the 4.2km long tunnel takes the value of the work to over €333M (£299M) The last estimate put the cost at €312M (£280M) The election to appoint three new members to the British Geotechnical Association (BGA) executive committee is now under way Voting is open to all BGA members and will close at 5pm on 30 May 2025 Ground Engineering magazine is preparing to launch the 2025 GE100 survey which will once again identify the biggest players and key trends in the UK geotechnical sector Glasgow’s £15bn Clyde Metro has taken a step forward with the appointment of Mott MacDonald which will provide consultancy services for key stages of the project Caledonian Maritime Assets is seeking a contractor to carry out ground investigations (GI) for a major project to upgrade ferry fleets and associated infrastructure on the west coast of Scotland Sign in or Register a new account to join the discussion A new timescale and remediation strategy for the opening of the new 182km long high speed line between Karlsruhe in Germany and Basel in Switzerland has been published after a major collapse of an under construction tunnel in 2017 thwarted the project released the information five days before the second anniversary of the tunnel collapse which resulted in a tunnel boring machine (TBM) having to be encased in 160m of concrete to stabilise the ground for the existing railway tracks above The TBM had been passing under the rail line after works had taken place to freeze and stabilise the ground with brine to a temperature of -35ºC The reason for the tunnel collapse is yet to be published and the investigation continues DB chief executive Dirk Rompf said the safety of the existing railway nearby residents and construction site staff in Rastatt was a priority and it had now created “conditions for a safe completion of the tunnel” he said the tunnel would not open until 2025 three years later than originally planned when construction started in 2013 “This [the works to create a safe site] includes extensive subsoil investigations around the damaged area and the western tube of the tunnel the agreement of an emergency management with the infrastructure managers in the neighbouring countries as well as the careful examination of a large number of variants for the further construction,” he said the railway tracks at ground level have been rebuilt on a 275m long “decoupling” the operation from further works on the tunnel The work is being carried out by the Tunnel Rastatt consortium comprising Hochtief and Züblin Züblin board member Edgar Schömig said it had developed a technical concept for the completion of both the east and west tunnels Schömig said the remaining 200m of the western tunnel would be excavated using another TBM and the eastern tunnel (which was being built at the time of the collapse) would be completed using a cut and cover method the railway line above the tunnels will be temporarily moved over a 700m long section sensors are being placed on the rail line above to detect changes to the track position 210 transverse sensors 12 sensors for trolley masts and 304 glass prisms will be used which are calibrated with 10 tachymeters to independently monitor the position of the reinforced concrete slab concrete retaining walls will be installed around the tunnel and the backfill and filled concrete removed the encased TBM will be dismantled and a new tunnel structure built and backfilled around An arbitration process is currently underway between DB and Tunnel Rastatt  and is expected to be concluded “in the coming year” As part of this process DB said around 70 boreholes had been made around the site of the accident with around 1,000 soil samples taken and analysed Work on the remaining parts of the line has been continuing with work to build the north and south portals for the tunnels Like what you've read? To receive New Civil Engineer's daily and weekly newsletters click here. 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