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We all know the story of crossovers taking over the auto industry—particularly the luxury segment—in recent years. Mercedes-Benz has high hopes that luxury pickup trucks like its upcoming X-Class can have a similar dominance with shoppers looking for a refined, yet rugged truck that’s just as at home at the country club as it is off-road.
“SUVs are elegant lifestyle products with a high-quality finish to them. Not every customer takes them into the wilderness anymore. We believe pickups could go in a similar direction,” said Volker Mornhinweg, executive vice president of Mercedes-Benz Vans to Automotive News Europe.
According to Automotive News, Mercedes-Benz ambitiously forecasts volumes for pickup trucks of this size to be as high as 3 million units worldwide in the next decade. Any volume that high has some room for a luxury entry and Mercedes is hoping to get an early lead in that market.
The Mercedes-Benz X-Class is a luxury mid-size pickup truck that was unveiled in Cape Town, South Africa back in July. It was unveiled in South Africa because that will be one of the key markets for this truck along with Europe, South America, and Australia. Last we heard, it’s not coming to the U.S. because we like our luxury pickups big and American.
The X-Class is based on the body-on-frame Nissan Navara pickup which has been out internationally since 2014. Mercedes gave it a few of its own touches to make it more like a luxury car including double-wishbone front suspension and coil spring rear suspension to improve ride quality, four-wheel disc brakes, and of course, it’s own look and luxurious interior to make it worthy of its Mercedes-Benz badges.
Is it possible that there’s room in the rapidly growing luxury crossover segment for a mid-size luxury pickup? The closest thing we have to such a vehicle in the States is the GMC Canyon Denali which doesn’t have anywhere near the ubiquity of similarly sized luxury crossovers. If you’re an American desiring a Mercedes-Benz X-Class, don’t fret. There are several ways you can spend a lot of money on an opulent home-grown pickup truck.
