It had all the makings of a sales hit – a famous brand entering a booming market with a headstart thanks to a shared platform – but the Mercedes-Benz X-Class flew across the automotive sky like a three-pointed shooting star.
Launched in 2018, it was gone by the end of 2020. But why? Why did a dual-cab ute from such a reputable brand fail to work at a time when ute sales were through the roof?
This was definitely the right car, but it seems Mercedes’ timing may have just been off. In hindsight, Mercedes was just a few years too late for the X-Class to be a success story.
It would have been ideal if Benz launched it when they first announced the project in 2015, but instead it didn’t hit showrooms until 2018. By that time the ute market had evolved quite considerably and left Mercedes trying to play catch-up against better, more established competition.
The core of the problem was Mercedes’ decision to partner with the Renault-Nissan Alliance on the project, using the Navara as the basis for the restyled X-Class. On the one hand it made great sense, it allowed the German brand to shortcut the learning curve of commercial utes by leveraging Nissan’s decades of experience.
The expectation at the time was that Mercedes would use the knowledge it gained working with Nissan to then develop its own ute from the ground-up for the second-generation X-Class that would be a ‘true’ Mercedes.
However, the X-Class proved so unpopular Mercedes never got the chance to put that plan into action. By 2015 the likes of the Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok were already established in the market, and Toyota launched its eighth-generation HiLux that same year.
Also hitting Australian showrooms in 2015 was the D23 Navara, which gave it a three year head-start on the Benz. That meant the similarities between the Navara and X-Class were quite obvious too, making it a harder sell as a ‘premium ute’.
In its first year on sale the X-Class found just 1545 buyers, compared to 16,469 for the Nissan version. Not a promising start and it didn’t improve much as time went on.
At the same time Mercedes was revealing its plans for the X-Class in 2015, Volkswagen had already realised its four-cylinder strategy wasn’t working in the Australian market and had the 3.0-litre V6 Amarok ready to launch by 2016.
So by the time Mercedes arrived in 2018 with its own 190kW/550Nm 3.0-litre V6 turbo diesel, Volkswagen had already had two years to establish itself as the ute powerhouse.
Sales continued to be slow in 2019 and by 2020 Mercedes’ management conceded defeat and shut down production of the X-Class. In total, between 2018 and 2020, Mercedes-Benz Australia sold just 6057 X-Class (with an extra 39 finally leaving dealerships in 2021).
Given the continued growth of more premium and powerful utes, such as the HiLux Rogue, Ranger Raptor, Amarok V6 and Chevrolet Silverado, Mercedes seemingly just got the timing of the X-Class wrong. If it had started earlier, the X-Class might have stood a better chance of establishing itself and not suffered such a short, unpopular run.
Keyword: Right car, wrong time: Mercedes-Benz X-Class - why the German giant couldn't compete with the Toyota HiLux, Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok