Mercedes CLA & GLA will sell 60,000 a year in the USA

Mercedes US boss, Steve Cannon, says Mercedes are aiming for sales of 30,000 a year each for the new Mercedes CLA and GLA.

Mercedes are aiming to sell 30k CLAs in the US every year

[nggallery id=1357 template=customlinks]

It’s not all that long since the only Mercedes car US car buyers actually took seriously was the Mercedes S-Class.

But times have changed and the rise in fuel prices and the collapse of the US car market has seen US car buyers looking at more ‘compact’ cars as appealing buys. Which explains why smaller cars have suddenly become an appealing ‘must have’ for car makers selling in the US, even ‘premium’ car makers.

Mercedes have something of a head start in the US with their premium offerings on a smaller scale, and have big expectations for the new Mercedes CLA and GLA.

Both the CLA and GLA are spun off the same platform as the new A-Class (although Mercedes decided a hatch wasn’t the way to go to get US buyers on-side for smaller cars) so they’re pushing the CLA as a more compact offering than the CLS and the GLA – when that arrives – as a the perfect alternative to a full-sized SUV.

Steve Cannon, Mercedes boss in the US, says Mercedes hasn’t entered the US market with compact cars to do niche volume, but are reckoning on both the CLA and GLA doing around 30,000 a year once production is up to capacity.

Cannon says that in clinics the CLA was thought to be likely to cost north of $50, so with an entry price point of under $30k he thinks Mercedes are on to a winner.

Not only that, but they’re aiming to get the average age of a buyer of the CLA and GLA down by ten years from the C-Class – form 50 to 40 – which Cannon considers a ‘Home Run’.

Mercedes must hope Steve Cannon is right.