Mercedes’s new concept answers the question about what happens when you mix a small coupé with an SUV. Unveiled earlier this week at the Shanghai Motor Show, the new GLC Coupé brings together Mercedes’s SUV and coupé technologies to make what is typically called a crossover. Mercedes has done something similar before with the current GLE Coupé, but this new concept is a much more compact car. This means that GLC Concept shares a lot in common with the GLE Coupé, making it a near-production concept.
The GLC Concept looks like you would expect from a modern Mercedes coupé: the typical muscular features, front grill and headlights, rear lip spoiler and flowing body lines. However, there are some changes done the GLC Concept so that it can be an off-road vehicle. The new concept has to be physically wider with higher wheel arches in-order to house the large tires, and the oversized 21 inch wheels that are on the concept. The concept also has SUV style under body protection, side running boards, and higher ride height in order to achieve SUV level of off-road performance.
Since the concept is still basically a Mercedes Coupé, you would expect Mercedes to give the GLC Concept a decent amount of power, which they have. The concept is equipped with an AMG spec, direct-injected, twin-turbo V6 that will produce 367hp and 384ft-lb of torque. The concept also has Mercedes’s 9G-TRONIC nine-speed automatic transmission and 4MATIC permanent all-wheel drive typically found on other SUV’s.
Even though Mercedes says that the GLC Concept is a near-production car, the automaker has not given a possible release date for the concept. I’m not certain why Mercedes feels like it needs to go against most of the car world and call its crossovers coupés, but they have. I guess this is part of the Mercedes charm that their customers seem to enjoy.
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