Mercedes-Benz has already made it vocal about its plans to bring the GLA compact SUV to India this year. The German automaker showcased the crossover vehicle at the 2014 Auto Expo, surprising everyone by bringing the production model on the show floor, even after confirming the Concept GLA would be gracing the biennial event. Now Mercedes India has received two units of the GLA earlier this month, which have been imported for homologation purpose from Germany (Mercedes also imports cars to India from the US and Hungary).
The GLA 200 CDI and GLA 200 Sport are being homologated as this BMW X1 and Audi Q3 rivalling car will be offered in these two variants in the sub-continent. Mercedes is going offer the lower GLA 200 variants in India while globally higher variants include the GLA 220 CDI and GLA 250 Sport. The GLA 200 CDI uses a 2.2-litre diesel engine to generate 136 HP of power and 300 Nm of torque. This is the same engine which does duty on the A-Class (in a lower state of tune), the car with which the GLA shares its MFA front-wheel drive platform.
The GLA 200 Sport belts out 185 PS of power and 300 Nm of torque from its 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine. Both engines will be mated to a 7-speed automatic gearbox with steering mounted paddle shifts as standard. Globally Mercedes pairs the GLA 200 to a 6-speed manual gearbox as well. Just like the A-Class, Mercedes will load the petrol model with more features although both variants will get a plethora of equipment including seven airbags, leather seats and a lot of safety kit, which is par de course for a Mercedes offering. The petrol variant will also get front parking sensors and a panoramic sunroof as standard.
Mercedes-Benz will launch the GLA compact SUV in the domestic market by the festive season. The Mercedes GLA will be priced between Rs. 28-31 lakhs (ex-showroom), thereby sitting right above the A and B-Class. It will fill the void between the Mercedes hatchbacks and sedan (C-Class). The Stuttgart headquartered automaker will also bring in the AMG version of the GLA, dubbed the GLA45 AMG, which is more true to the SUV acronym as it uses Mercedes’ famed 4MATIC all-wheel drive system. All variants of the GLA will be brought into the country via the CBU route.
