DaimlerChrysler has announced it will produce the next generation of Dodge Sprinter vans in Charleston, SC.

The facility is at Ladson, just a few miles north of Charleston, on the site of a subsidiary belonging to DaimlerChrysler’s Freightliner LLC. The new Sprinter van will replace the current Dodge Sprinter model in early 2007. Since 2001, the Sprinter has been on sale in the United States under the Freightliner and Dodge brands.
The all new Dodge Sprinter brings new standards of refinement, space and performance previously not offered in the light-duty van market. The van has become even more flexible with body and engine variants meeting all requirements and adds the safety feature of the new adaptive Electronic Stability Program (ESP), being able to measure the weight of the vehicle’s load, calculate the center of gravity and adapt its responses correspondingly. DaimlerChrysler will invest $35 million to convert the plant to van production for North American markets. Initially, 220 employees will be engaged in the production process when the plant produces its first van at the end of the fourth quarter next year. As of October of this year, a total of 22,800 Dodge and Freightliner Sprinters were sold in the NAFTA region.