Mercedes A Class SUV - Mercedes GLA - confirmed

Mercedes has confirmed the arrival of a compact SUV based on the new A Class and B Class platform, likely to be the Mercedes GLA.

Mercedes has finally built a very promising compact car in the new A Class, and is spreading the love with more to come on the same chassis like the swoopy coupe CLA. But it’s not going to stop there.

As we reported in May, there is going to be a Mercedes A Class SUV – which looks likely to be called the Mercedes GLA – offering a rival to cars like the Audi Q3 and BMW X1 and built on the same platform as the new A and B Class.

Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche confirmed the GLA as on the way during a conference at the Mercedes plant in Rastatt to mark the start of the new A Class production. Zetsche said:

This start of production marks a further milestone in our Mercedes-Benz 2020 growth strategy. The A-Class represents our offensive in the compact segment.
The compact SUV will be the third model we will build here in Rastatt.

Which makes it pretty unequivocal that the A Class SUV is on the way to build on the success of the new A and B Class family.

Zetsche also revealed increased investment in the new range of a further €600 million and a third assembly shift at Rastatt starting in October to keep up with demand, demand that has already seen orders for 40,000 new A Class cars since sales were announced a month ago.