Mercedes GLA Concept leaks ahead of Shanghai Motor Show debut

The next instalment in the new Mercedes A Class family – the compact SUV GLA – has leaked ahead of a debut at the Shanghai Motor Show.

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The new Mercedes A Class family – already comprising the A Class and the swoopy coupe CLA – is set to grow with the arrival of the Mercedes GLA – a compact SUV built on the same platform – at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.

But ahead of a debut of the production ready GLA at Frankfurt, Mercedes are taking a GLA Concept – which is pretty much what the production version will be – to the Shanghai Motor Show this month. But it’s arrived early.

Thanks to a German website publishing the pictures ahead of time (which they’ve subsequently removed) we get our first look at Mercedes latest addition to the A Class family – and it does look quite convincing.

The GLA is pretty much the same size as the A Class, but rides higher with a much more rugged look thanks to skid plates, new butch bumpers, plastic cladding round the wheel arches and a set of roof rails.

Inside is probably a bit of a concept special with stitching and materials that probably won’t be found on the production GLA, but the basic cabin architecture looks to have carried over from the A Class – and that’s no bad thing.

Under the bonnet will be the same range of engines as the new A Class, with the GLA offering 4MATIC 4WD on the higher spec models with FWD on the more prosaic versions. We also expect to see a more than warm GLA 45 AMG too.

More details when Mercedes make the GLA Concept official.