Here is one Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen that won’t spend most of its life in and around cities, like the G-Wagens do in New Zealand.
It’s another version of the G500 4×4² (²=Squared) unveiled at the Geneva motor show in 2015, this one believed to be a double-cab pick-up, the rear bed in these spy pictures hidden behind heavy masking.
Like the 2015 G500 4×4² (pictured at the bottom of this page), the pick-up – pictured testing in the snow in Scandanavia – gets a track 30cm wider than on the standard G-Wagen.
Again like the G500 4×4², the pick-up uses jacked-up suspension for 450mm of ground clearance and a wading depth of one metre. But the pick-up’s wheelbase appears to be a little longer to accommodate the bed. The wheel arches seem considerably larger too.
Under the arches are 22-inch AMG alloys likely riding on the same suspension technology as the SUV, a robust dual coil set-up with adjustable damping.
The pick-up will almost certainly share its engine with the G500 4×4². It’s a 4.0-litre AMG V8 twin-turbo unit producing around 320kW/600Nm, a detuned version of the engine found in the AMG GT. It drives all four wheels through a seven-speed gearbox and three locking differentials.
Mercedes-Benz has built a pick-up based on the G-Wagen before – the six-wheeled, 420kW G63 AMG 6×6. The pick-up on this page is believed to be based on the next-generation model, the standard examples of which are already undergoing hot and cold weather testing.
New Zealanders bought 17 G-Wagens in 2016 – 30 per cent wearing the Mercedes-Benz badge and 70 per cent AMG.
