Rendering - The India-bound next gen Mercedes GLK Class

The fact that luxury SUV models account for most of the high-end market's sales is no more a secret. Especially the segment binding the Audi Q5, BMW X3, Mercedes M Class and the Volvo XC60 is growing each year. However, as the demand for these SUV's continues to grow, there definitely seems to be a need for more styles of cars.

Mr. Eberhard Kern, CEO and MD of Mercedes Benz India, revealed to Indian Autos Blog that the next generation Mercedes GLK is definitely coming to India when we spoke to him a few months ago.

The reason for the current generation GLK's absence in India is because there is no right hand drive variant available to import. The GLK is left hand drive only as a portion of the driveshaft is offset towards the right hand side.

The GLK was introduced by Mercedes in 2008 at the Beijing Auto Show where rivals Audi took the wraps off their competitor, the Q5. The GLK is currently being assembled in Germany, Egypt and China and the car sells in the American and the European markets, apart from the Middle East and China.

The 2016 Mercedes GLK will comfortably undercut the M Class in terms of price (and space) when it arrives in 2015 or 2016. The current GLK is built on the C Class platform and hence it is expected that the next gen GLK will use the new MRA (Mercedes Rear Wheel Architecture) that underpins the next gen C Class.

While it is too early to talk about engine options, expect Merc to provide a range of frugal petrol and diesel engines along with 4x4 drive.

[Source - AutoBild.de]