Mercedes-Benz X-class ignominiously leaves the market

16 July 2019

Pickup for the price of the sedan Mercedes-Benz was useless

Alexander Klimov, photo by the author, Daimler and Renault

The idea to produce the three-beam pickup under the iconic logo of Mercedes-Benz amid the boom in this segment in the world at first seemed quite common, because of prodavaite in America under premium brands Cadillac and Lincoln pickups.

The prototype X-class showed even in Moscow "Komtrans-2017"

However, it was already long enough, so that our days have already become true.

Mercedes-Benz X-class

In General the project of selling the same truck as a Nissan Navara at a more prestigious Mercedes brand (natural Class, in this case X and under factory index Br. 470, however, resembles the index of "Messer" Bf109?),

Renault Alaskan

and less prestigious Renault (the French dubbed it the Alaskan) actually failed miserably, despite the fact that production is carried out on one production line with original Nissan Navara factory in Barcelona.

Basic version Pure

Impact is very solid (only for prestige brand) price – from €48 790 in Germany, that in the presence of a much cheaper and popular competitors, of course immediately made the pick-up niche without any hope of sales growth. In the past 2018 worldwide (except USA) has been realized only 16.7 thousand X's. Renault with their "alescence", however, also passed and in fact quietly turned sales.

Top performance Progressive

Debuting in 2017 truck Mercedes X-class is equipped with two turbo-diesel: production of the Renault – 2.3 dCi (163 and 190 HP) and the MB – V6 3.0 L (258 HP). Transmission with 6-speed manual gearbox or 7-speed automatic transmission, rear and plug-in full drive.
So the logical conclusion – even the former head of Daimler Dieter Zetsche was forced to put on an unprofitable project X-class cross to reduce costs, as reported by the website of Automotive News, citing its sources in the German company.
New broom – Ola Kallenius, in General, wants to curtail cooperation with the Alliance Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi. In turn, the Alliance throws further development of pickups exclusively for Mitsubishi. So that the second-generation X-class, we will not see. Yes, in fact, to grieve, especially in Russia, no one will.

The chart JATO Dynamics fine view of the popularity of pickup trucks in Europe by model, January-April 2018. Summary for MB X-class is dismal – only 4.5%