Mercedes GLE Coupe arrives to take on the BMW X6

The Mercedes GLE Coupe has been revealed as Mercedes’ answer to the BMW X6, with the first AMG Sports model revealed as the Mercedes GLE 450 AMG.

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Mercedes has been talking about playing catch-up with the BMW X6 since 2011, when it became clear there’d be a Mercedes MLC to take on the X6, confirmed when Mercedes announced a new model for their Alabama plant in 2015.

Slow forward to the Beijing Motor Show in April this year, and the Mercedes Concept Coupe SUV previewed the new ML Coupe, and by last month Mercedes had confirmed the changes to its naming strategy that means the ML Coupe becomes the Mercedes GLE Coupe. And here it is.

Looking much as you would expect – a coupe version of the soon to be facelifted ML, which will become the GLE – the Mercedes GLE is very much the Mercedes take on the BMW X6, complete with polarising looks and an incongruous coupe roofline.

There are styling cues from both the new Mercedes C-Class and S-Class at the front band back, with slim headlights at the front separated by a big Mercedes grill above big air intakes and strips of chrome. The rump is rounded with a chrome strip running across it and lights that make the back end look a bit like the S-Class Coupe.

Inside, the GLE Coupe looks high quality, with the latest Mercedes COMAND system, sports seats for the AMG Sport models, carbon fibre and lots of tech on offer like 360-degree parking camera and night vision.

The headline is probably the Mercedes GLE 450 AMG Coupe, the first of the new AMG Sport models, which comes with 4MATIC four-wheel-drive – with torque split 40:60 – with a 3.0 litre V6 petrol engine delivering 362bhp and 383lb/ft of torque.

But there will also be a GLE 400 Coupe that uses the same engien detuned to 328bhp and 354lb/ft of torque as well as a diesel version in the GLE 350d Coupe with a 3.0 litre V6 turbo diesel offering 254bhp and 457lb/ft of torque.

Mercedes has tweaked the GLE’s underpinnings for a more focused drive, with suspension geometry changed, driving modes remapped, gear ratios altered and a new nine-speed auto gearbox. The AMG Sport model gets a torque split for the 4MATIC biased to the rear, but other models get a straight 50:50 split.

The GLE Coupe also gets Dynamic Select with five driving modes –  Individual, Comfort, Slippery, Sport and Sport+ – which set the GLE Coupe up for your intent, and there’s the option of a new Airmatic suspension.

The Mercedes GLE Coupe will debut at the Detroit Auto Show and arrive in the UK in the summer of 2015. expect prices to be heading for £10k more than an equivalent GLE.