Benz still right hook shy

Right hand drive markets such as Australia have grown used to being treated with occasional indifference by left-hook focused luxury carmakers, but the latest snub from German giant Mercedes-Benz is particularly galling.

The technically ground-breaking (and eco-friendly) SLS Electric Drive is the latest model from the three-pointed star brand to be declared a right-hook no-go zone. The electric gullwing joins the more affordable GLK compact SUV on the disappointing list of absentee models for markets such as Australia, South Africa, the UK and Japan.

They’ll be joined soon enough by the all-wheel drive version of the next generation AMG S-Class limousine, due in left-hand drive markets later this year.

US carmakers have long been known for their myopic view of the automotive universe and it seems Mercedes-Benz picked up all the wrong lessons during its Daimler-Chrysler years.

There are, of course, rational technical reasons why some of Benz’s best models won’t ever be available in right-hand drive, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing.

The new AMG S-Class 4Matic won’t be made in right-hand drive, for instance, for the simple reason that the old one wasn’t; and the two are based on essentially the same architecture. In the case of the ground-breaking 1000Nm SLS Electric Drive, director of vehicle development for AMG, Tobias Moers, said the absence of a right-hook version is due to technical changes midway through the car’s development.

“We tried, but in the end, there was not enough space in the car so we had to figure out how to package some of the things we needed,” he said.

“We had to know the numbers in the right-hand drive countries to see what to do, and there was no question that we only had one way to go. We started this project four years ago and we always meant for it to be right-hand drive, but two years ago we found out we could not do it. Some technology had to be repackaged.

“It is a very ambitious project, a car like this, and we had bigger issues than the numbers and a few right-hand drive cars,” Mr Moers said.

The very low volumes of the SLS Electric Drive also made the decision to cull the right-hook version easy for the Mercedes-Benz performance division, which will manufacture the electric SLS.

“Honestly, we don’t know the volumes. That depends entirely on the market, but we are a little bit limited in production to one a day. And that’s for maybe one year of production only.

“We did it to show what is possible with an electric car, not to sell a lot of cars,” Mr Moers insisted.

“Our decision was to do a pure electric car not a range extender and this is just to gain experience and it’s good for us to show our competence with this,” he said.

While the rarified air of the SLS Electric Drive and the AMG S-Class 4Matic don’t impact directly on many Australian consumers, the absence of a right-hand drive version of the high-volume GLK is a different story altogether. In that case Audi and BMW dealers are taking full advantage of the Benz black hole, selling as many Q3, Q5 and X3’s respectively as they can get their hands on.

“We have learned from the GLK,” a senior Daimler source told motoring.com.au at the Paris show.

“Nobody is proud about that decision [to make it LHD only].”

Fortunately, the problem remains restricted to a few models but the sweeping changes required to ensure all Mercedes-Benz models are available in right-hook won’t come until almost the end of the decade.

The next full platform change for larger, rear-drive-based machinery will begin with 2014’s all-new C-Class, which will be the first big Benz able to accommodate both all-wheel drive and right-hand drive. That architecture is designed to be modular, so over the next eight years will eventually accommodate the new E-Class, CLS, GLK and S-Class – all of them available in right-hand drive and 4Matic.

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