Mercedes-Benz Confirms It’s Developing a Pickup Truck, Satan Lacing up His Ice Skates

Here in the U.S., Mercedes-Benz has long positioned itself as the builder of premium cars and SUVs (with the exceptions of the Sprinter and upcoming Metris vans). Globally, however, the company offers a massive array of products, from compact front-drive hatchbacks to big rigs and buses. And today, Mercedes-Benz confirmed that you’ll be able to add mid-size pickup trucks to that list by the end of this decade. (Yes, we checked the calendar, and April 1^st isn’t until next Wednesday.)

The as-yet-unnamed truck (T-Class, anyone?) is being developed by the company’s van division, and will probably bear some resemblance to the rendering above that accompanied the press release. Mercedes-Benz says the model will be aimed primarily at the South American, European, Australian and South African markets, where sales of mid-size trucks like the Toyota Hilux, VW Amarok, Ford Ranger, Nissan Navara and their ilk are highest. So in case you haven’t guessed by now, there are exactly zero plans to sell this Hessian hauler in America; perhaps that will change if sales of the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon and updated Toyota Tacoma spike, but we’re guessing the more likely scenario would be Mercedes-Benz developing a proper full-size pickup for this country (though considering how hard a time Toyota and Nissan have had siphoning sales away from the domestics in that segment, we’re guessing the world’s oldest car company is in no hurry to do so).

Source: Mercedes-Benz