Six words uttered in Germany this week had global repercussions.
“There will be a little G,” Ola Källenius, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz Group and chief executive officer of Mercedes-Benz, said on Sept. 3 at a private press reveal in Munich.
From Instagram and TikTok, to Burning Man and Rodeo Drive, fans of the boxy Geländewagens rejoiced. Geländewagen is German for “off-road vehicle” and the source of the “G” nickname for the G-Class, the highly profitable model line Mercedes introduced in 1979.
The new fun-size G, aka G-Wagen, will be electric and arrive in a few years’ time, Källenius confirmed in a wide-ranging interview on Sept. 4. But just because it’s smaller doesn’t mean it will be cheap: Källenius says the so-called baby G would still live comfortably among the likes of the AMG, S-Class, and Maybach lines the company has prioritized after announcing last year that it would eliminate some entry-level vehicles.
The current least expensive G-Class, the G 550, starts at $139,900 (R2.7 million), but some versions, such as the Mercedes-AMG G 63 4×4², cost more than $350,000 (R6.7 million).
“The G is the definition of what we call our top-end vehicles,” Källenius says. “It is almost like a religion, and the little G is part of that. We want it to be accurate.”
Walking the Line
Mercedes has made smaller G-Wagens before, like the two-door versions it did with Steyr-Daimler-Puch starting in the 1970s. Nicknamed “the Puch,” it came with a choice of four engine variants at the time of its launch varying from 71 to 154 horsepower. It was certified for sale in the US in 1993.
And vintage-inspired rigs are popular gambits. Land Rover did it with the Defender 110 in 2019; Ford debuted a modern take on its Bronco in 2021.
But both of those were comebacks of a marque that had fallen dormant, at least in the US, while the G-Class has never ceased production, instead coming out with extreme versions such as the Mercedes-AMG G 63 6×6 truck and outlandish concepts like the quilted puffer design Mercedes made with fashion brand Moncler.
More than 50% of the G-Wagens ever made are still on the road today, Källenius says.
“Simmering in the background, it’s always been, ‘Why isn’t there a little brother, little sister of the G?’” he says.
“So, a year and a half ago, we were thinking about what Mercedes would look like in the second half of this decade. What is going to be our product portfolio? And we knew we already had the components, we have what we need to do a little G, and that was it. We said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
Luxury Goes Electric
By its nature, the fledgling SUV will straddle two sides of Mercedes’ business: the lucrative personalization programs that get customers to spend thousands of dollars extra on customized wheels, colors and trim, and Mercedes’ push to sell electric vehicles, which has faced challenges in some markets this year.
On the one hand, Mercedes’ plan to focus on its most expensive vehicles and all their special upgrades has shown early signs of success.
The average sale price for a Mercedes is 40% higher than it was in 2019. Mercedes-Benz also remains the priority brand for luxury buyers in China, its biggest market.
But the company has seen less-than-impressive EV sales in China, where affluent drivers favor combustion cars like the $114,500 (R2.2-million) S-Class sedan. Mercedes has cut prices on some electric models there; Källenius says the changes were necessary adaptations to the market.
“If you buy a Louis Vuitton bag in New York or London or Paris or Beijing or Tokyo, it’s going to [cost] the same,” he says.
“Cars are not as simple because there are different customs and tax regulations. But we did early on in China make sure that the EQS fit in that [traditional luxury product] logic.”
Mercedes remains on track with its plan to sell only EVs where market conditions allow by 2030, a spokesperson confirmed on Sept. 6. That includes electrifying the ones already atop the company’s lineup.
“Do we think luxury is going to go electric?” Källenius says. “Yes, of course we do.”
The G-Wagen with its opulent toys for tycoons is well among that group; the all-electric G-Wagen called the EQG premieres next year.
Baby G will be the encore. “It’s not immediate, it will have its development time,” he says. “But if you wait for something good, it’s worth the wait.”
Keyword: “Little” Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen confirmed – Everything you need to know