Mercedes-Benz GLC to debut in June

Mercedes-Benz will stage the world debut of its all-new GLC in June and the mid-size German SUV will be in Australian showrooms by the end of this year, motoring.com.au can reveal.

Sources have confirmed the GLK replacement will make its global premiere in Germany in the week beginning June 15 – around the same time Mercedes will hold an international launch for the larger GLE (facelifted M-Class) and all-new GLE Coupe.

Both large SUVs – including AMG versions — will go on sale here in September, when the GLE will take the fight up to BMW's dominant X5 and the GLE Coupe will be Merc's first direct rival for the X6, while the GLC will be launched in Europe in July and arrives to fight Audi's top-selling Q5 and the BMW X3 here in December.

By then Mercedes-Benz Australia will have launched the GLE 500e, which along with the C 350e and S 500e will be the first plug-in hybrid models offered here by the three-pointed star.

Although it's not expected on sale here until mid-2016, Benz will mark the end of its "year of the SUV" in November when it reveals the GLS (facelifted GL-Class) at the Los Angeles motor show.

The final piece of the largest SUV puzzle Mercedes-Benz has ever produced, the GLC Coupe concept, is expected to emerge in final production form later next year as a direct competitor for the BMW X4.

Like the GLC on which it's based, the 'coupe' will come in a full range of models including AMGs, giving Benz a full range of six luxury crossovers from the GLA to the GLS (excluding the G-Class).

Before then, Mercedes-Benz Australia will this year also launch the all-new CLA Shooting Brake, S 500 and S 65 Coupe, AMG-Maybach S 600 limousine, V-Class people-mover and AMG GT coupe, alongside which will come the new AMG C 63 sedan in August.

The new Mercedes mania continues in 2016 with launches of the new C-Class Coupe including the cracking new C 63 AMG Coupe (both of which will be revealed at the Frankfurt show in September), as well as the C 450 Sport variant, new E-Class, new S-Class Cabriolet and Pullman, the SLC (facelifted SLK), facelifted A-Class and, later, new C-Class Cabriolet.

Codenamed W253 and based on the same MRA platform as the latest benchmark-setting C-Class, the GLC will be larger, more dynamic, more efficient and – as these latest Automedia images show – better looking than the ungainly GLK, which was not produced in right-hand drive and never sold here.

Mercedes' Q5/X3 fighter may be powered at base level by a new turbocharged 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine in the entry-level GLC 250, while the GLK’s 2.1-litre turbo-diesel should carry over into the GLC 250 BlueTEC.

Meantime, Daimler's 3.0-litre twin-turbo petrol V6 should power the GLC 400, which could be badged as the GLC 450 Sport model, but it's not clear whether Merc will employ the C 63's 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 for the GLC AMG.

The GLC Coupe concept shown at last week's Shanghai show (pictured here in yellow) was powered by a 270kW/520Nm biturbo V6, matched with a 9G-TRONIC nine-speed automatic transmission.

Mercedes says SUVs already account for more than a quarter (26 per cent) of the global automotive market and it expects their share to increase — especially in China, where Benz added 100 dealerships and increased its sales by 28 per cent to 270,000 last year.

The GLC will be built in Mercedes' Bremen plant in Germany as well as China, where Daimler recently announced plans to invest one billion euro in its joint-venture factory with BAIC, and this year hopes to add another 50 dealers and lift sales to 300,000.