Mercedes-Benz has previously mentioned plans to have a premium pick-up truck in a joint collaboration with the Renault-Nissan alliance - one that's based on the latest NP300 Nissan Navara platform. The German marque has since indicated that their "premium truck," dubbed to be a "real Mercedes," will sport a 3.0 litre V6 under the hood that can make 258 hp and a generous 620 Nm of torque.
The six-cylinder turbodiesel engine will be the same as those found in Mercedes' passenger car range, including the S-Class and the GLE-Class. Additionally, while the pick-up truck will be based on the Nissan Navara, the premium automaker has stated that the design and engineering will be very much done by Mercedes-Benz. It won't be a simple rebadge-engineering exercise, basically.
Thomas Weber, Daimler board member explained, "yes, to come to an attractive price we are using a common platform, but all the rest is done by Mercedes - to design, to develop the vehicle specifically to meet Mercedes criteria," he told CarAdvice. So you can expect the interior and exterior of the truck to look and feel like a Mercedes-Benz.
As for key markets, the company says that Latin America, South Africa, Europe, Australia and New Zealand would receive the new premium truck first, while development and testing will take place in Australia. It will be positioned one level above more familiar names such as the Ford Ranger, Volkswagen Amarok, Toyota Hilux and the very car it's based on - the NP300 Nissan Navara (above).
The Mercedes-Benz pick-up truck will only come in dual-cab form, and is expected to hit the market by 2018. It will be built in Renault's plant in Cordoba, Argentina as well as Nissan's plant in Barcelona, Spain.
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