Mercedes confirms major model name changes

Mercedes has confirmed it’s changing the nomenclature of its model range to more sensibly reflect the variants of its cars across a core model range.

There was a time when you knew exactly what a Mercedes model was and where its fitted in the range, but things have got very muddly over the years.

But now, in an effort to make the model names in the Mercedes range more easily understood – and, no doubt, to give more room to play as Mercedes does an Audi and introduces endless niche-filling models – the whole Mercedes model naming structure is being shaken up.

The various Mercedes ‘Class’ models remain as the core – S, E, C. B and A – as do the G and SL Class, with the new naming policy designed to show where in the Mercedes range a car fits. But the SUVs, 4-door coupes and Roadsters get treated a bit differently.

So, for example, all SUV models will come with the GL badge with a third letter added to denote where in the range it fits, so with the GLA (an SUV A Class) already existing we will get the GLC (the new GLK), the GLE (the new ML) and the GLS (the current GL). Confused yet?

The SL stays as the SL but the SLK will become the SLC (which sounds wrong for anyone over 40), and the CLS stays too (even if it is really an E-Class four-door coupe) and we already have the CLA as an A-Class Coupe.

You can also chuck in to the mix stuff like ‘Coupe’ and ‘Shooting Brake’ to add on the end of the names, and the plethora of other ‘add-ons’ like BlueTEC, F-Cell and CDI are biting the dust.

They will be replaced with a lower case letter after the model name, with c for a compressed gas model, d for diesel, e for electric, f for fuel cell and h for hybrid. Which should make the long convoluted Mercedes names of recent years redundant.

So, it’s all as clear as mud and you still won’t be able to relate the ‘number’ in a model name – for example S500 – to the engine size as you once could, so the numbers are at best an illustration of hierarchy and may as well be random.

But it does look to give Mercedes a reasonably logical way to badge the plethora of niche models they’re planning.