Kvadratish, practical, fan: the head of Mercedes-Benz officially announced the small G-Class

Ola Kallenius, CEO of the Mercedes-Benz Group, confirmed rumors at the Munich Motor Show that the company is developing a junior SUV based on the legendary Mercedes-Benz G-class. The new model will be the company's first significant step in turning the G-Class into a full-fledged sub-brand.

Mercedes-Benz has been thinking about turning the G-Class into a sub-brand with several models for a long time, because the current frame SUV, produced since 1979, sooner or later will leave the scene, no matter how much you modernize it, but its name is simply obliged to bring profit to the company. The popularity of the «Gelik» has only been growing in recent years, as we talked about in the spring, when the Magna Steyr plant in Graz, Austria, produced a half-millionth copy of this SUV.

Next year, the current G-class will have an electric brother EQG with a bunch of innovative technical solutions, while on the outside the “hydrocarbon” and electric “gels” will differ only in insignificant details, that is, while evolution is going on, in fact, within the same model. Even last spring, when Mercedes-Benz introduced a new development concept with a division of the model range into three segments, it still had no clear idea of ​​u200bu200bhow the G-Class would develop as a sub-brand.

In February of this year, the German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that the management of Mercedes-Benz nevertheless decided to develop a younger «gelik», then it was assumed that he would get a new light platform MMA (Mercedes Modular Architecture) and enter the market in 2026.

At yesterday's IAA Mobility exhibition in Munich, the head of the Mercedes-Benz Group, Ola Kallenius, has already officially confirmed that there will be a younger «gelik», he called him Little G, but this, of course, is only a working nickname , the real commercial name is still classified.

The British Autocar magazine, in turn, citing Mercedes-Benz representatives, reports that the Little G will be built on its own platform, and not on MMA, because it must be a real SUV and a light “trolley” is not suitable for it. Perhaps the platform for the Little G will be just a derivative of MMA, but it will not be an on-duty crossover with a «square» body, such a simplified concept would damage the image of the G-class.

According to British colleagues, the Little G will rather mid-size than compact, but it will definitely be lower and lighter than the “adult” G-class, handling should be closer to Mercedes-Benz cars than to the current frame SUV. The body, most likely, will be load-bearing, and the power plant will be electric, although “hydrocarbon” versions are also possible for certain markets.

Representatives of the German company are not yet ready to name the dates for the premiere and entry into the market of Little G, but it is clear that the novelty is worth waiting for in the second half of this decade. The Little G's main competitor in the market is likely to be Ineos Automotive's junior electric SUV.