Benz's first coupe-styled SUV, the GLE Coupe will seemingly not make a third generation. Image: Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz’s product range streamlining, announced last year, will seemingly not involve only its sedans, estates, cabriolets and coupes, but also SUVs according to a newly uncovered report from Germany.
Just over 12 months ago, the three-pointed announced that it would be reducing its current line-up from 33 to 14 models by removing most notably coupes and cabriolet as it prepares for an all-electric future by 2030.
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Since then, it has revised its plans by not only cancelling its next generation EQ models but also abandoning its second generation EV dedicated platform called MB.EA that would have spawned a Medium and Large architecture.
At the same time, the EQ name looks set to bow-out entirely, supposedly by the end of 2024, and the focus placed back on combustion engines with electrification amidst the dramatic slowdown in EV sales in Europe.
According to German business publication Handelsblatt in May, the move will result in savings of between €4-billion to €6-billion (R76.6-billion to R115-billion) and allow Benz to keep combustion engine vehicles in production past 2030.
In the latest report by the same publication, CEO Ola Källenius has reportedly set a plan into motion that will lead to some of its slow-selling SUVs being discontinued before the end of the decade.
While production of the A-Class received a surprise extension until 2026, the Handelsblatt report states that the coupe versions of the GLC and GLE could be in the firing line for making-up the least of SUV sales.
A move that would see the pair join the C-and E-Class Cabriolet and Coupe, and the CLS on the list of models discontinued over the last three years, the report has, for the moment, not been commented on by Stuttgart or Källenius himself.
Elsewhere, the B-Class will also exit production in 2025 followed by the C-Class Estate in 2028, while the CLE has since taken over as the dual coupe and cabriolet replacement for the respective hard-and-soft-top C-and-E-Class.
Uncertain though are the futures of the GLB, the rumoured MMA platform for the next generation of small models comprising the GLA, A-Class and CLA, and the ‘baby’ electric G-Class that had been tipped for a 2026 introduction as the tentatively named GLG.
As it stands, no exact details about the mentioned coupe’s alleged axing are known, however, don’t be surprised if a more formal announcement does emerge sometime in 2025.
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