Barely two years into the release and production of the first-ever Mercedes-Benz pick up truck model series, the company has decided to roll it off its production line just because it wasn’t doing good numbers saleswise. Here is what Mercedes had to say about this official announcement:
“With the X-Class launch in 2017, Mercedes-Benz entered into a new segment and presented a mid-size pick-up. We drew in a lot of attention with this vehicle. Now it has been decided that from the end of May, 2020, we will no longer produce this relatively young model.
“In our global product portfolio, the X-Class is a niche product which plays a great role in a few markets, including Australia and South Africa.”
I knew this would happen but two years wasn’t my guess. Every new Mercedes-Benz model gets a lot of love from Nigeria saleswise but in the last 2 years, I only saw one X-CLASS pickup truck in Nigeria and that is very disappointing. At first, I felt Nigerians weren’t trying to let go off the Hilux but thinking about it critically the X-CLASS is a luxury pick-up truck.
The Mercedes-Benz X-Class is deceased before it could make it to 3 years into production
Why would any Nigerian put a luxury and expensive pick-up truck in their convoy? It doesn’t make sense because the car isn’t cheap; it costs over N150,000,000 to purchase asides shipping and clearing costs into Nigeria. Car buyers would rather stick to having the Hilux do the dirty job of leading convoys and entering rough terrains as it is always prone to danger.
Nigerian engineers would prefer other pick-up trucks. I mean the Nissan Frontier, Ford F-150, Toyota Tundra/Tacoma and the rest of them. These trucks are very sophisticated but still not big-ticket. The Benz X-Class is too close to being a decorative truck with a very high price tag that people would rather buy its close competitors.
The pickup segment has been a playground lots of brands join to gain the market share
Video: Mercedes-Benz X-Class Review – Is it worth it?
By mid-year, this jewel will be off the production line of Mercedes-Benz totally. I hope Benz looks into the production of a more functional pick-up truck that the world would appreciate more.