Mercedes plotting more compact SUVs

The success of the Mercedes-Benz small car assault via vehicles such as the A-Class hatch, CLA sedan and GLA compact SUV already has the company pondering a further expansion of the next-generation of small cars.

And SUVs are tipped to be a big part of the plan.

That's the word from Mercedes-Benz head of vehicle research and development, Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber, who told Australian journalists in Germany this week SUVs will forever be a cash cow for car makers.

When will the SUV boom end?

 "Never," stated Weber.

"Why should it? One critical argument in the past was fuel consumption," he said, arguing that diesel engines and plug-in hybrid technology negates this contention.

"The biggest trend around the globe is the trend to SUVS," he said and although he believes that a passenger car smaller than the A-Class won't wear Benz badges, an SUV smaller than the GLA which is based on the same MFA (Mercedes Front-drive Architecture) platform is under serious consideration.

"GLA is a really successful vehicle... If there's room for more in this segment, why not in the future?" he posited.

"Not in this lifecycle, but why not in the next generation?"

Currently Mercedes-Benz has five vehicles based on the current MFA small car platform (A-Class hatch, CLA sedan, GLA SUV, CLA shooting brake wagon, B-Class hatch) but the top-ranking Benz executive says learnings taken from its first crop of front-drive cars give it plenty of reason to expand in future.

"We demonstrated with our current platform a huge variety of five completely different vehicles are possible. It's clear from an engineering point of view that we could do more, seven or eight vehicles.

"We will see if there is more room for SUVs in this segment and below it," he augured.

There's a chance the company's next compact SUV could wear smart badges, so as not to dilute the brand with a cheaper, smaller vehicle, but the next new SUV from the Stuttgart auto maker is most likely to be a sleeker version of the GLC medium SUV, which is coming to Australia in December.

The mid-sized 'coupe' SUV is based on the C-Class underpinnings and although the Mercedes-Benz vehicle R&D kingpin wouldn't confirm for production the GLC Coupe concept first previewed at the 2015 Shanghai motor show, he went close.

"Not [confirmed for production] so far, but I can confirm we are thinking in this direction."

It's true that the SUV boom doesn't show any signs of waning, and Mercedes-Benz has big – and small – plans to take advantage of that.

Pictured: GLC Coupe Concept debut, Weber at left