MELBOURNE: Mercedes-Benz used a glitzy event on the eve of the Detroit auto show to stage the world debut of a performance midsize luxury SUV coupe and a new plug-in hybrid.
Media who gathered Sunday night at the Book Cadillac got the first look at the Mercedes-AMG GLE63 crossover coupe that will go on sale in August. It complements the GLE450 AMG sport coupe. Think of a cross between the E-Class sedan and the ML SUV. It would compete against the BMW X6.
The GLE SUVs are the first vehicles to benefit from Mercedes’ new naming system where all SUVs start with “GL” and the E refers to it being a midsize vehicle similar to the E-Class. This is the family of vehicles that has been called ML to date. The first of the new GLEs will go on sale later this year.
And Mercedes calls the GLE a coupe even though it has four doors. The all-wheel-drive GLE family has a variety of drivetrains. The GLE 450 AMG 4Matic has a 362-hp twin-turbo 3.0L V6 and nine-speed automatic transmission. It accelerates to 60 m.p.h. in 4.9 seconds. The Mercedes-AMG GLE63 S 4Matic has a 577-hp twin-turbo 5.5L V8, seven-speed automatic transmission and hits 60 in 4.2 seconds.
Dr. Dieter Zetsche introduces the Mercedes GLE Coupe to the media at their event on the eve of the Detroit auto show at the Westin Book Cadilac Hotel, Sunday in Detroit.(Photo: Regina H. Boone, Detroit Free Press)
Standard safety features in the GLE coupes will include active roll stabilization, collision prevention assist and heated, adaptive windshield wipers.
The luxury German carmaker traditionally uses star-studded performances as a backdrop to unwrap vehicles the evening before the start of press days at the North American International Auto Show.
This year is no different. Ann Arbor native Mayer Hawthorne, a Grammy-nominated American singer, producer, songwriter, arranger, audio engineer, DJ, rapper and multi-instrumentalist was booked to help showcase the GLE and also show for the first time the C350 plug-in hybrid. The hybrid will go on sale this fall, initially in states such as California that have requirements for more zero-emission vehicles. Michigan is not one of those states.
The hybrid version of the C-Class has a range of 20 miles on electricity before needing the help of the four-cylinder engine. The hybrid system was initially developed for the S-Class. Mercedes has said it wants to introduce 10 new plug-in hybrids by 2017.
