Photo: Daimler AG/Stuttgarter Zeitung
The German car giant is in talks to bid for a soon to be ex-military base in the Baden-Wurtemberg region – right in Daimler's backyard, if you wish – in order to build a Mercedes-Benz testing ground.
The 500-hectare (1,236-acre) complex is based in Immendingen, in the middle of the Black Forest, and it was originally a washing facility for armored howitzers.
“A military plot is ideal,” Ulsamer, Daimler AG's head of regional projects, told Bloomberg. Converting agricultural land or empty countryside often meets resistance from farmers and environmentalists, he said. “Military conversions are easy to get through the political process.”
Daimler AG wants to transform the howitzer wash into car shops, the on-site shooting range into a car headlights testing tunnel and the training ground into a vehicle test track.
As British and American military bases in Germany are being closed and Germany's army forces are being scaled back in the next five years, there will be a lot of soon to be ex-military sites all over the country which are sought after by either car companies or investors who want to transform them into luxury houses, factories and even large arrays of energy-generating solar panels.
“A military plot is ideal,” Ulsamer, Daimler AG's head of regional projects, told Bloomberg. Converting agricultural land or empty countryside often meets resistance from farmers and environmentalists, he said. “Military conversions are easy to get through the political process.”
Daimler AG wants to transform the howitzer wash into car shops, the on-site shooting range into a car headlights testing tunnel and the training ground into a vehicle test track.
As British and American military bases in Germany are being closed and Germany's army forces are being scaled back in the next five years, there will be a lot of soon to be ex-military sites all over the country which are sought after by either car companies or investors who want to transform them into luxury houses, factories and even large arrays of energy-generating solar panels.
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