Mercedes creates its first pickup to challenge Volkswagen and Toyota

Mercedes has revealed a first sketch of a medium-sized pick

up truck which it intends to launch on to global markets by 2020. "The Mercedes-Benz pickup will contribute nicely to our global growth targets," Daimler chief executive Dieter Zetsche said. "We will enter this segment with our distinctive brand identity and all of the vehicle attributes that are typical of the brand with regard to safety, comfort, powertrains, and value."

Interestingly, Mercedes is not going after the sort of super-sized, occasionally luxurious pickups which are so coveted in the US market – its analysts believe that the market for such super-sized pickups is too limited to North America. By aiming its new model (which hasn't yet been named) at the likes of the Volkswagen Amarok and Toyota Hilux, there is greater potential for global sales.

It also means that this Mercedes, like the Vito and Sprinter vans, will be a workhorse first and luxury will inevitably be well down the list, even if it will certainly be there. Mercedes is currently talking about a load capacity of one tonne for its pickup, which is well within the ballpark for its competition.

Needless to say, though, there will be versions aimed at leisure users and not just the building trade. Mercedes has frequently made up-scale versions of its vans, and Volkswagen has had some success in selling specced-up “Canyon” versions of the Amarok. An AMG version? Don’t count it out . . .

So far, Mercedes has merely confirmed that the pickup will use four-cylinder (presumably the long-serving 2.1-litre turbo diesel) and six-cylinder (both petrol and diesel) engines and that it will be based on the same chassis and component set as Nissan's next-generation Navara. Renault, Nissan and Mercedes are ramping up their component and technology sharing agreement and that has already born commercial-vehicle fruit with the Mercedes Citan van, which is a rebadged Renault Kangoo.

“Years ago, SUVs used to be, well, rough,” Volker Mornhinweg, head of Mercedes-Benz Vans, said in an interview. “Then they became prettier. Now, we see the same trend in pickup trucks. We see opportunities to enter this market as the first premium brand.”

The market for such medium-sized pickups currently stands at about 2.3 million sales, globally, per year. Industry analysts IHS Automotive expect that to expand to about 2.8 million by 2020, so Mercedes isn’t betting on a massive expansion in such sales, but more on existing users fancying trading-up to something more overtly luxurious.