Mercedes-Benz builds sport utility vehicles in Alabama for markets around the world and runs a van plant in South Carolina. Chinese groups, including Geely and Beijing Automotive, together own nearly 20 percent of the German company. That combination of US factories and Chinese shareholders turned a bill aimed at Chinese automakers into a direct threat to Mercedes’s American business.
The Senate Commerce Committee’s proposal would bar any automaker with more than 15 percent Chinese ownership from selling vehicles in the United States. With its stake sitting just under 20 percent, Mercedes landed squarely in the bill’s path and quickly became the most prominent test case.
