Mercedes-Benz is building a pickup truck! Yes, the purveyor of some of the world's finest luxury cars is jumping headfirst into the ultra-competitive pickup market.
The Mercedes entry into the fray will be a mid-size truck, something on the scale of General Motors' Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon.
"The Mercedes-Benz pickup will contribute nicely to our global growth targets," Daimler chairman Dr. Dieter Zetsche said in a statement. "We will enter this segment with our distinctive brand identity and all of the vehicle attributes that are typical of the brand with regard to safety, comfort, powertrains, and value."
There are few regions of the auto market as intensely competitive and territorial as pickup trucks. Ford, General Motors, RAM, and Toyota have the US market neatly carved into devoted followings for their offerings. In fact, Ford's full-size pickup, the F-150, has been America's best-selling vehicle for decades.
Mercedes' new truck will not be headed for the US anytime soon. It will spend its time in Europe, South Africa, Latin America, and Australia.
That means the Benz truck will have to contend with Volkswagen's Amarok, as well as Toyota's utilitarian Hilux.
MB is not without truck experience. The company's G-Class is one of the most widely used military vehicles in the world. But it's not a pickup. The company has created rugged, off-road, pickup-like variants, but this new effort is a bold move into a segment that Mercedes hasn't previously competed in.
This might be exciting, but we'll have a wait awhile. The Mercedes-Benz pickup truck isn't expected to hit the market until the end of the decade.