Say Hello To The X-Class: The First Mercedes Pick-Up Truck

As Mercedes continues what seems to be a mission to fill every niche going, the company has revealed its very first pick-up. It was previewed by the X-Class concept last year, and beneath its chunky body panels you’ll find the old-school ladder chassis of the Nissan Navara.

It’ll be available in three distinct variants: Pure, Progressive and Power. Pure is a “basic variant for classic robust use” - in other words it’s the one for people who want to use it as an actual pick-up truck. Progressive is a slightly fancier, more refined version, while Power is the poshed-up, lifestyle-mobile you’ll soon see populating the more expensive streets of your local city, or bimbling down to the coast at the weekend with a bunch of surfboards/canoes attached.

In terms of engines, most markets will only have diesels to choose from. There’s a 161bhp X220d, a 187bhp X250d - both displacing 2.3-litres - and a 255bhp, 542lb ft V6 to choose from. The V6 has permanent all-wheel drive, while the inline-fours will have a selectable four-wheel drive system.

The load bed is 1560mm wide and 474mm high, with a maximum possible payload of 1042kg. Want to tow something big? The braked towing capacity is 1650 - 3500kg “depending on engine and equipment.”

Much of the interior is borrowed from the V-Class van, with elements of the C-Class employed too. There’s a 5.4-inch LCD screen between the two physical dials in the instrument binnacle, plus the familiar 8.4-inch floating tablet-style infotainment screen sitting above the air vents.

Want one? UK pricing isn’t available just yet, but it’ll set you back €37,294 and up in Germany when it goes on sale in November of this year. It’ll be in South African and Australian showrooms from the beginning of 2018, arriving in Argentina and Brazil a year later.

It’ll be built alongside the Navara in Nissan’s Barcelona plant, with the Latin American version made at Renault’s Cordoba, Argentina factory.