Mercedes sketches GLA’s future

MERCEDES-BENZ has promised more character, more space and more safety from its all-new GLA compact SUV that is on the launch pad for blast off this week ahead of an Australian roll-out in the third quarter of 2020.

The German company has released yet another teaser image – this time a design sketch of a rear three-quarter view of the five-door hatchback – to draw attention to the imminent arrival.

As this image shows, the new GLA is closely related to the latest A-Class that made its debut in Australia early this year.

However, this time the GLA not only has a higher ride height but also is taller in the turret to deliver more head-room – hence the Mercedes reference to more space.

The GLA and A-Class appear to share similar door skins, but the GLA has an extra window towards the C-pillar, along with different taillight lenses and SUV-style black plastic trim on the wheel arches, rear bumper and diffuser.

The rear-mounted spoiler is also painted black, as are the GLA-only roof rails.

The wheels shown in the sketch are – as always in such fanciful drawings – blown out of proportion, and will be smaller in reality.

As we have reported, the GLA will share Mercedes’ MFA2 small-car front-wheel drive architecture with the A-Class, B-Class and CLA-Class, all of which have been steadily rolling out of the Stuttgart brand’s design studios and factories over the past year or so.

Mercedes-Benz is yet to disclose how many GLA variants will make it to Australia to replace the current four petrol and diesel iterations that start at $44,700 plus on-road costs for the 1.6-litre petrol GLA180.

However, if the A-Class and B-Class are any guide, diesel is likely to be scrapped, perhaps replaced by a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) version at some point.

The Mercedes-AMG GLA45 will almost certainly return as the flagship of the line-up.