Mercedes-Maybach GLS SUV: Made in America and debuting this year

Mercedes-Benz are planning to deliver the Mercedes-Maybach GLS this year as an ultra-luxury take on the new GLS aimed at high-end SUV buyers.

Last year, at the Beijing Motor Show, Mercedes revealed the Vision Mercedes-Maybach Ultimate Luxury Concept as a pointer to what it saw as logical competition for cars like the Range Rover and Bentayga (but perhaps not the Cullinan).

Now, one year on, it looks like Mercedes are heading to the Shanghai Motor Show this year with a production take on the Maybach GLS, and plans to build it in the US for a global market, although with a big bit of the global market it will target being China, ‘Tariff Wars’ could make that a bit tricky.

With a price point expected to be around 25 per cent more than the Bentayga, according to Automotive News, Mercedes look to be aiming to sit in a place between SUVs like the Bentayga and Range Rover and the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, and although the Maybach Vision Concept was an EV, it seems the production version won’t be.

The concept had up to 750bhp from its EV powertrain, but it seems the production version, at least initially, will come with a petrol V8 with more than 550bhp.

Will Mercedes make a success of the Maybach brand as an add-on to the regular Mercedes models, rather than as a standalone brand? The Maybach GLS has a chance.