Mercedes-AMG: No standalone SUV coming

The Mercedes-AMG performance sub-brand has no plans to develop its own mega-power crossover, arguing such a car would cannibalise existing Mercedes-Benz products.

The ever-growing performance division this week launched the new GT 4-Door super-limo, expanding its line-up into the ‘family’ space for the first time. The obvious question is, what’s next?

Company boss, Tobias Moers, told us an SUV option wouldn't be given the green light – at least not any time soon.

According to Moers, the decision to expand the range with the GT 4-Door wasn’t just an arbitrary push for growth, but instead aimed at filling a specific need.

“That car was kind of a white spot in our portfolio,” Moers told CarAdvice.“What we saw there was a missing link, we lost customers."

"They drove C or E 63s and were looking for the next level, and we didn't have it.”

Instead, they bought Porsche Panameras.

“Regarding SUVs, we have a broad portfolio within Mercedes we do derivatives of,” Moers said.

"We have to consider we have an overall business responsibility in Mercedes and AMG in common, and if you would do some dedicated AMG kind of car, there would be a big piece of cake we would be wanting that would be substituted. So from an overall business approach there is no sense to it.”

In other words, it would cut the lunch of existing Mercedes-AMG SUV derivatives, even if it was based on the 4-Door.

“I know a car like this makes an appetite for more but we are so fully loaded and still expanding… there’s nothing on the table,” he said, adding the next GLE would be more dynamically adept than the existing offering.

Mercedes-AMG makes tuned versions of almost every Mercedes-Benz, from the A-Class to the G-Class – and its expanding family of MFA small cars (to be eight in total, incorporating a GLB) will all get the treatment, aside from the B-Class.

Between its AMG35, -43, -45, -53 and -63 families, plus the dedicated Project One, and GT two- and four-doors, Moers and his team clearly feel pressed enough, thanks very much.

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