HomeCar NewsMercedes-Benz global naming pattern, GLC for GLK, GLE for M-Class

Mercedes-Benz global naming pattern, GLC for GLK, GLE for M-Class

Apart from new cars, there’ll be different body variants and drive systems, all of it pointing to the complexity of naming various models. Dr Jens Thiemer says Mercedes-Benz is making its vehicle nomenclature even more understandable. Mercedes-Benz’ international appeal gets a boost in the arm with a simple, more transparent and logical model series naming system for clear orientation for customers.

New nomenclature Mercedes-Benz drive systems

Renaming cars now is a great start considering in 2015 Mercedes-Benz will update virtually its entire SUV model range, and rename the full family of vehicles. Model designation remains an acronym of between 1 and 3 upper-case letters. Engine type is indicated by a lower-case letter.

Mercedes-Benz’ 5 core model series, A, B, C, E and S remain in use. For SUV’s, G?Class paves the way, and will in future have the first two letters ‘GL’ in their name. ‘G’ denotes car lineage, and ‘L’ has appeared time and time again as a linking letter making model designations easier to remember and easier to pronounce, i.e., SL, CLS and CLA. The 3rd letter in SUV’s points to the relationship to a relevant core model series. As such: GLA = GL A-Class, GLC = GL C-Class; previously GLK, GLE = GL E-Class; previously M-Class or ML, GLE Coupe = GL E-Class Coupe, GLS = GL S-Class; previously GL.

New nomenclature Mercedes-Benz model series

For 4-door Coupes, first two letters, ‘CL’ denote origin, and the third letter links to a core model series, i.e., CLA and CLA Shooting to link to a core model series. SLK is the new SLC. Similar to ‘G’, SL retains its in recognition of its iconic status. Different engine types will be given new designations in lower-case letters for clear orientation and shorter names. As such, c stands for ‘compressed natural gas’ (Natural Gas Drive until now), d for ‘diesel’ (BlueTEC and CDI until now), e for ‘electric’ (PLUG-IN HYBRID, BlueTEC PLUG-IN HYBRID and Electric Drive until now), f for ‘fuel cell’ (F-CELL until now), h for ‘hybrid’ (HYBRID and BlueTEC HYBRID until now).

Petrol cars continue to be named without a suffix. 4MATIC for all-wheel-drive vehicles remains unchanged, and as it approaches it 30th anniversary in 2015, 4MATIC will in future play an even more important role in Mercedes-Benz’ vehicle portfolio with more cars in the all-wheel drive segment.

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