Mercedes: No GLK for Oz was a ‘mistake’

Mercedes-Benz has admitted it made a "mistake" to limit its mid-sized GLK SUV to left-hand drive markets only, and has promised a more global approach in the future.

The German brand produced its first mid-sized soft roader with a European-centric focus, but the company's head of research and development, Thomas Weber, said Australia's appetite for SUVs was a wake-up call to expand its portfolio and be more consistent across all markets.

The company has rectified the issue, and filled the void between the recently-arrived GLA baby SUV and the popular ML (soon to be called GLE when the new model arrives in September) with the GLC soft-roader due to arrive in Australia in December.

"In the first instance we were not sure if the right-hand drive volume would be big enough and the complexity [was too much] so therefore with the GLK we entered first in this segment with the core markets," Weber told Drive .

"That was 10 years ago and nobody expected the success of the SUV. We did not know there would be such demand.

"Of course with the success of the SUV it was a mistake [not to build the GLK in right-hand drive], and even if you recognise it too early then it is not possible to introduce later on during this lifecycle.

"There is now a clear commitment that the right-hand drive countries are becoming more important. For [the past few] years, it is a clear decision we change the launch strategy and in the past we are heavily focused on Europe. Now it is clear it is faster to go to all countries."

The GLK was the last individual model to be produced exclusively in left-hand drive, and the imminent arrival of the GLC will provide Australians will the full line-up of Mercedes-Benz models.

The only exceptions are some all-wheel drive variants developed specifically for colder climates, such as the E63 AMG 4Matic and optional all-paw transmissions in the C-Class models.

Considering the popularity of premium SUVs in Australia, the GLC is expected to become one of Mercedes-Benz' best-selling models in Australia.