Carmaker
New GLC: Does this electric car bring the turn for Mercedes-Benz?
With the new fully electrical GLC, Mercedes uses a bestseller. Why experts praise the step, but also remain doubts about the future orientation of the manufacturer.
Mercedes-Benz presented its new hope in Munich with the fully electric GLC. So far, the SUV from the car manufacturer’s middle segment was only available as a combustion engine or plug-in hybrid. “The GLC is the best-selling model at Mercedes-Benz, so this car is so important,” said Mercedes boss Ola Kälenius of the German Press Agency. The sale starts before Christmas and the first deliveries in Europe will be in spring.
The head of the DAX group did not call a specific price. Anyone who is driving a GLC today will also feel the price of the new GLC, said Källenius. According to Källenius, the prices of electric cars and burners approach Mercedes. For the combustion GLC, the prices at Mercedes are currently starting around 54,000 euros. Mercedes is at the beginning of an unprecedented product offensive that started with the new electric CLA from the entry segment a few months ago.
Mercedes weakens with sales
Mercedes could use a seller. In the first half of the year, the Stuttgart had eight percent fewer cars and vans than in the already weak period of the previous year. The group result has more than halved. Mercedes, among other things, cited tariffs and lower sales figures as reasons.
The new GLC is the first model with “the redesigned, brand -shaped chrome -plated grille,” it said. Mercedes thus moves away from the design of the electrical EQ models and visually approaches the classic combustion engine. The “GLC 400 4MATIC” is the first model of the new electric series. For the time being and based on forecasts, the top speed is 210 km/h and the range is more than 700 kilometers.
Expert: “An important step for Mercedes”
“The new GLC is an important step for Mercedes,” said industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer. After the new CLA in the entry segment presented in the spring, it is now nice at the GLC that Mercedes serves the broad middle class. Mercedes has recently captured too much on the luxury segment and thereby lost important customers, said Dudenhöffer.
The expert evaluated the fact that combustion engines and e-models at Mercedes are more similar again in the future. “This strict differentiation between combustion engine and electric cars belongs to the past,” said Dudenhöffer.
Between departure and disorientation
“It is urgently time for Mercedes a big hit,” said Frank Schwope, car expert and lecturer at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences. But he does not know whether this will be the case with the new GLC. “Mercedes meanders the automotive world a bit disoriented in recent years,” said Schwope. He misses the straight line.
Mercedes set an important signal with the new GLC, said Stefan Reindl from the Institute for Automotive Economy in Geislingen, Swabian. The model is of central importance for the group and offers good and competitive values. However, Reindl said whether the revised radiator grille design will arrive on the relevant markets.
dpa
Source: Stern
