Seven-seat and hybrid ML in the works

Mercedes-Benz already has a luxury SUV capable of seating seven, but there are some for whom the GL-Class Merc is just too big and too expensive.

For those buyers Benz will develop a variant of the new W166-generation M-Class SUV, says the vehicle's chief engineer, Thomas Merker. Merker, attending a presentation of the new SUV to press from around the world, was very clear with motoring.com.au.

"We have not announced a date right now… we are not ready to announce that today," he said, but subsequently revealed his team was working on such a variant and its global launch would be around two years from now, with an Australian release shortly after that.

As the wheelbase for the seven-seat version(s) will be the same as for the five-seaters, accommodation in the third-row will be very much kid-size only.

Merker also revealed that the company was well advanced on the development of an ML hybrid.

"We are working on a hybrid," he said, "it's not so far away…"

The hybrid will be based on the newly released four-cylinder ML 250 Bluetec — due to reach Australia first quarter of 2012. Merkur doesn't seem so supportive of the ML Hybrid, saying that the cost of the extra engineering, materials and manufacturing is worth an extra €7000 or 8000 per car, but only yields an "absolute maximum" reduction of 20g/km — the four-cylinder diesel ML already discharges as few as 158g/km, making it the cleanest-running SUV in its class, even against hybrids manufactured by other companies, the Benz engineer claims.

Finally, Merker informed Australian journalists attending that AMG's version of the new M-Class will be launched globally in April of next year.