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Mercedes-Benz says it could have launched a crossover-coupe well before the BMW X6

Ronan Glon
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Mercedes-Benz has revealed it could have launched a style-focused crossover-coupe well before BMW introduced the X6, but it instead chose to focus on the developing a new family of front-wheel drive entry-level models.

Speaking at the global launch of the 2016 GLE-Class, Wolf-Dieter Kurz, Mercedes’ vice president of SUVs and sports cars, explained the company toyed around with the idea of a building crossover-coupe in the early 2000s when it was looking for a way to rejuvenate its image and explore new segments. Ultimately, executives decided to allocate the company’s resources to developing an entire family of entry-level cars instead of designing a single niche model with a very limited appeal. Unsurprisingly, Kurz argues Mercedes made the right decision.

“It’s also a question of capacity. Where do you put your R&D guys and what type of vehicle do you ask them to develop? Of course the development of a new vehicle represents the same effort regardless of if you sell one million or 100,000, so that is why the investment decision was taken,” said Kurz.

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It looks like Mercedes’ bet has paid off. BMW sold about 300,000 examples of the first-gen X6 globally from 2008 to 2014, but Mercedes has built over a million examples of the A-, B-, CLA-, and GLA-Class since 2011. MFA-based cars have played a tremendous role in luring new and younger buyers into showrooms, and they currently represent about 28 percent of the brand’s global sales.

Both Mercedes-Benz and BMW have some catching up to do. The X6-fighting GLE Coupe is on sale now, and a smaller model called GLC Coupe is expected to join the lineup in about a year in order to take on the BMW X4. On the other side of Germany, BMW launched the B-Class-fighting 2 Series Active Tourer a year ago, and it will introduce an entry-level front-wheel drive sedan aimed right at the CLA in a couple of years.

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Ronan Glon
Ronan Glon
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Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…
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