By Jamie Barrie M ercedes-Benz is looking to do what Honda did with the Ridgeline with the new The Mercedes-Benz Concept X-Class. However Mercedes-Benz will focus on wealthy adventurers looking to take their motorsports toys to the lake house or summer homes to capitalize on the growing demand for innovative SUV’s. Mercedes-Benz announced that it will start selling mid-size pickups in late 2017, as Mercedes parent Daimler AG prepare to go after market share and sales volumes in a very competitive luxury-car market as world’s biggest maker of commercial vehicles tries to repurpose models for a broader audience. Mercedes is set to unseat BMW as the world’s biggest seller of premium vehicles this year, as it boosts volumes with sporty SUVs that appeal to younger buyers. The company is betting that global demand for mid-sized pickups will expand by nearly 40 percent by 2025 to 2.8 million units globally. X-Class vehicles will be “competitively priced,” for the Luxury market sharing production capacity and key elements like engines with partner Renault-Nissan helping to reduce costs and accelerate bringing the product to market. “The Mercedes-Benz pickup will bridge the gap between commercial and private use,” the company said in the statement. The target audience for the Mercedes-Benz X-Class will be “families with an active lifestyle.”
We are certain that interest will pick up on Mer- cedes-Benz.
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NOVEMBER 2016 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS
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