[karan561]

Mercedes-Benz has officially announced it will launch its first pickup truck model by 2020.



Merc will become the 1st premium manufacturer to respond to this market by developing its own pickup truck.

Target markets - South Africa, Latin America, Australia & Europe.

Source

[1100D]

This has the potential to be big for them. Though they probably missed this opportunity during their synergies with Chrysler/Dodge.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by karan561

Target markets - South Africa, Latin America, Australia & Europe.

They've missed the world's biggest pickup market - the USA! Ford, GM & Chrysler have a good number of pickups costing over $50,000, clearly showing there's some demand (however small) for luxury pickups.

Mercedes already builds SUVs, vans & trucks, so why not a macho pickup? It'll anyway have a better image than the utilitarian Citan Panel Van!

[karan561]

Originally Posted by GTO

They've missed the world's biggest pickup market - the USA! Ford, GM & Chrysler have a good number of pickups costing over $50,000, clearly showing there's some demand (however small) for luxury pickups.

Mercedes already builds SUVs, vans & trucks, so why not a macho pickup? It'll anyway have a better image than the utilitarian Citan Panel Van!

Yes, but i happened to read another article on the same story & as they mention "mid-size" pick up i believe this will target the VW Amarok, Hilux & Ranger territory as these are the most popular pick ups in the target markets mentioned.

[Jeroen]

I'm very surprised to Europe as a target market. I don't have any data at hand. But having lived most of my life in various European markets, I would say current pick up demand in most (if not all) Europen market is low possibly non-existent.

For all the cars I have owned in various European countries I have never ever considered a pickup. They are just not part of the European car scene at all.

I have lived in the USA and just about everybody has a pick up it seems. Certainly in and around the area where we lived, Kansas City, (Kansas, Missouri, i.e. the Mid West).

Although I did not buy a pickup even there, I certainly considered them, they were very much part of the day to day traffic. Just about all our friends owned one too.

I did buy a 1998 Jeep Cherokee and was surprised to see on the registration papers to see it classified as a 'truck'. Now we need a true American to point out the differences between a 'van', a 'truck' and a 'pick up'. Some pick ups are trucks, some are not. Same for vans.

On this particular Mercedes, looks like a bloated whale.

Jeroen

[Mpower]

April 1st is also coming up

If its legit, then they need to understand the US truck buyer because that is where the market is

[1100D]

Originally Posted by GTO

They've missed the world's biggest pickup market - the USA! Ford, GM & Chrysler have a good number of pickups costing over $50,000, clearly showing there's some demand (however small) for luxury pickups.

Mercedes already builds SUVs, vans & trucks, so why not a macho pickup? It'll anyway have a better image than the utilitarian Citan Panel Van!

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I'm very surprised to Europe as a target market. I don't have any data at hand. But having lived most of my life in various European markets, I would say current pick up demand in most (if not all) Europen market is low possibly non-existent.

For all the cars I have owned in various European countries I have never ever considered a pickup. They are just not part of the European car scene at all.

I have lived in the USA and just about everybody has a pick up it seems. Certainly in and around the area where we lived, Kansas City, (Kansas, Missouri, i.e. the Mid West).

Although I did not buy a pickup even there, I certainly considered them, they were very much part of the day to day traffic. Just about all our friends owned one too.

I did buy a 1998 Jeep Cherokee and was surprised to see on the registration papers to see it classified as a 'truck'. Now we need a true American to point out the differences between a 'van', a 'truck' and a 'pick up'. Some pick ups are trucks, some are not. Same for vans.

On this particular Mercedes, looks like a bloated whale.

Jeroen

Originally Posted by Mpower

April 1st is also coming up

If its legit, then they need to understand the US truck buyer because that is where the market is

My guess is that, they are deliberately trying to avoid the US. The premium Pickup market in US is based on the Large Ladder frame Pickups/SUV's like the Escalade EXT, Avalanche, Ram 3500, Navigator. While Mercs biggest offering there, the G-class is a Unibody (not easy to spin off a dual cab pickup from).

Probably they will base this on the first generation M-Class, in which case, this might turn out too small in comparison to the competition.

[Spinnerr]

Isn't Mercedes G63 AMG 6x6 considered as a luxury pick-up truck?

Per se; this wouldn't be their "1st" pick up truck in the market.

Edit: A bit of Googling is throwing up a dual cab long wheelbase G wagon based truck too; wonder when that was launched.

[kisharchit]

As someone right mentioned above, April 1st is coming soon. Anyone remember BMW's prank of the M3 pickup? I feel we should take this news seriously post April Fool's Day.

[pgsagar]

Not sure if this will be a hit in US, even if launched. Merc sedans and SLKs may find buyers aplenty but pick-up truck buying crowd is different from city slickers who buy sedans/sports cars. Pick-up buying crowd generally root for native Chevys, Dodges, Fords etc. Only Toyota has been successful as they match the American SUVs in street presence. Of course, reliability being the icing on the cake.

This Merc pick-up however, may be a big hit with yuppies of Thailand, world's second largest pick-up market.

[Zed]

Originally Posted by GTO

They've missed the world's biggest pickup market - the USA!

As mentioned in a previous post picks ups sold in North America do not fall in the mid-sized, 1-ton segment. The real surprise is ASEAN not being in the target market list.

Originally Posted by pgsagar

This Merc pick-up however, may be a big hit with yuppies of Thailand, world's second largest pick-up market.

Absolutely. Perhaps this an indication that the product will be in a completely different price / performace bracket compared to the D-Max's and Rangers

[swiftdiesel]

Originally Posted by GTO

Mercedes already builds SUVs, vans & trucks, so why not a macho pickup? It'll anyway have a better image than the utilitarian Citan Panel Van!

Mercedes didn't invest much in the Citan panel van as it's a rebadged Renault Kangoo. Their only contribution is the Merc family face. It was borne out of the alliance they had for the diesel engine. In fact Citan is manufactured at Renault's plant.

[karan561]

Latest news suggest this pick up truck will be built by NISSAN & will be based on the Navara.



Source

[karan561]

Originally Posted by GTO

They've missed the world's biggest pickup market - the USA! Ford, GM & Chrysler have a good number of pickups costing over $50,000, clearly showing there's some demand (however small) for luxury pickups.

Latest reports suggest this pick up will be offered for the US market too.

Steve Cannon (Merc CEO) told " The company is considering offering the truck in the United States. "

He also stated that a US-spec variant would be positioned as a luxury truck instead of a commercial vehicle.

He is confident that this pick up truck can sell at least 10,000 units in the US alone.

Source

[Tushar]

What was once up for speculation has now been officially confirmed. Nissan and Daimler will jointly develop a midsize pickup truck. As per the statement, the Mercedes-Benz pickup will share “some of” the architecture with the all-new Nissan NP300 a.k.a the Navara/Frontier, which is currently built in Thailand and Mexico. However, it will be engineered and designed by Daimler to meet the specific needs of premium vehicle customers.

Link to Team-BHP news article