BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Daimler (DAIGn.DE) said it will invest $1 billion to expand its U.S.-based Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama to start building electric sport-utility vehicles there from about 2020.

More than 600 new jobs will be created as part of the investment, which includes plans to build a facility in 2018 near the factory in Tuscaloosa to produce batteries for zero-emission vehicles, Daimler said on Thursday, confirming a Reuters story.

Stuttgart-based Daimler is joining a rush to add car-making capacity in the world's most profitable vehicle market that most analysts and industry executives expect to contract moderately over the next several years.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Tom Sims)