Mercedes-Benz to stop X-Class production

Leading German luxury automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz has announced that it will stop production of the X-Class pickup truck. The company, in a statement, said that it will no longer produce the ‘relatively young model’ from May. The X-Class, Mercedes-Benz said, is a niche product in the company’s global portfolio which has played a great role in markets like South Africa and Australia. The X-Class was based on the Nissan Navara utility vehicle and was built alongside the latter in Barcelona.

The Nissan Navara, which shares its underpinnings with the X-Class, had sold over 66,000 units by mid-2019. The Navara has a starting price of less than €20,000, while the X-Class commands around €49,000 for the entry-level model. 

Mercedes-Benz had initially planned to manufacture the dual-cab X-Class in Argentina. The company abandoned the plan early last year, stating that the price expectation of Latin American buyers was not economically viable to produce the X-Class.

Mercedes-Benz will now serve the pickup’s current demand which is a rival to the Toyota Hilux, Volkswagen Amarok, and the Ford Ranger. It has assured to continue with the warranty and service coverage for existing X-Class owners. 

The X-Class, since its introduction, was never lent a facelift and has been sold only in the first-generation version. The pickup will end its run much ahead of the eight-year lifetime expected from most car models. Volkswagen, on the other hand, is likely to continue the production of the Amarok utility vehicle for 12-13 years. The Amarok, meanwhile, is the only European competitor of the X-Class in Australia. It was unveiled in 2010 and is unlikely to be replaced before 2022-23.

Spanish daily newspaper La Vangardia had earlier reported that production of the X-Class at Nissan’s Barcelona workshop fell to 8,000 units in 2019 from 16,700 cars in 2018. There were also media reports that attempts to increase the pickup’s production at Nissan’s Santa Isabel backfired because of an alleged contractual dispute.

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