Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche, pop star Aloe Blacc and the new Mercedes-Benz A-Class wagon.
With pop star Aloe Blacc belting out “I Need a Dollar,” Mercedes-Benz officials took the wraps off the next-generation A-Class during their news conference at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show.
As Mercedes brand boss Dieter Zetsche acknowledged, it will take more than a dollar to park one in your driveway, but the maker hints that even with a wide range of new technology, it will be holding the line on the price of the A-Class when it comes to market later this year.
The smallest model in the Mercedes line-up will first roll into European showrooms then fan out to dealers around the world. That will include the U.S. market for the first time, a senior Mercedes executive telling TheDetroitBureau.com Americans will see the A-Class reach their shores by the end of 2013 or early 2014.
The production A-Class borrows the distinctive grille first shown on an A-Class concept in NY last year.
The new model is a sharp departure from the original A-Class design, abandoning the high-standing platform that was original conceived to allow for a hydrogen fuel cell or some other advanced powertrain to be mounted below the floor. That means the new minicar sits several inches lower and looks decidedly less awkward.
The Geneva preview focused on a station wagon version of the new A-Class, but Zetsche confirmed reports that there will be a variety of body styles to follow sharing the so-called MFA small car platform – which will also be used for the larger Mercedes B-Class, as well as for the Infiniti Etherea, a small luxury model to be built by Mercedes’ alliance partner, Renault-Nissan.
The A-Class wagon will be first out of the chute in Europe though Mercedes plans a different body style for the A-Class debut in the U.S.
“From the very beginning, we set out to make a bold statement,” declared Zetsche, noting that the production A-Class wagon was strongly influenced by the concept vehicle revealed at the New York Auto Show last April.
While some of the more exotic features from that show car, such as daytime running lamps consisting of 90 optical fibers surrounded by metal sleeves, weren’t carried over, the new Mercedes A-Class lifts the concept vehicles, distinctive grille, meant to give the appearance of a bright, nighttime sky.
“The ‘A’ now stands for ‘Attack,’” the CEO added, noting that the updated Mercedes A-Class will enter a much more crowded market than the original model faced. On the other hand, Zetsche said the German maker expects the premium compact segment to surge from 6.5 million vehicles a year worldwide in 2011 to 10 million by 2021.
The segment is likely to draw heavily from Gen-X and younger Millennials, industry analysts forecast, who are looking to enter the luxury market for the first time. No surprise, then, that Mercedes is putting a premium on technology, from advanced safety systems like Collision Prevention Assist to in-car infotainment.
The new A-Class will be one of the first in the Teutonic maker’s line-up to adopt the Siri voice-activated control system first seen on the Apple iPhone. In fact, that wagon’s entire infotainment system was designed around the popular Apple smartphone by a team of “geeks,” as Zetsche put it, based at a Mercedes facility in California’s Silicon Valley.
“We finally gave the iPhone its own set of wheels,” said Zetsche, noting that the system will be able to access contacts off an iPhone, while also displaying Facebook content and linking to various smartphone apps.
The wagon may be the first of the line, but “We have definite plans to let this family grow,” concluded Zetsche, hinting, “There will be many siblings in the near future.”
One of those will be the first to reach U.S. showrooms in late 2013 or early 2014, noted Mercedes Board Member and marketing chief Joachim Schmidt – though he declined to tell TheDetroitBureau.com specifically which body style that will be.
Schmidt did say, in an interview, that the wagon also will come to the U.S. at a later date.