Mercedes Baby G-Class: latest on little all-electric retro off-roader
Mercedes G-Class is set to give us a miniature spin-off of its famous G-Wagen
The G-Class is one of the oldest nameplates in Mercedes’ history but we’ve only seen it applied to one category of car. Now, Mercedes is looking to branch out, making its aspirational off-roader into something more accessible with a new ‘baby G-Class’.
Pitched solely as a pure EV that'll utilise the design of the G 580 with EQ Technology, the baby Mercedes G-Class will probably provide the brand with a rival to Land Rover’s upcoming, all-electric Defender Sport and the new Jeep Recon. Like those two cars the baby G-Class should keep traditional G-Class fans happy with much more off-road ability than road-biased electric SUVs like the Audi Q6 e-tron.
How much will the Mercedes ‘baby G-Class’ cost?
As for the pricing of the ‘baby G-Class’ or ‘baby G’, we expect it to kick off around £70,000 when it launches sometime in 2027, making it more expensive than the aforementioned Defender Sport and Recon.
This price estimate is based on Mercedes' other all-electric SUVs that could potentially rival the baby G. There’s the new GLC Electric, which is a similar size to the new baby G-Class and starts just over £60,000 and the GLB Electric that starts at just over £45,000. The cache of the G-Class name is likely to command a premium over these cars, but nowhere near the £154,870 Mercedes currently asks for the full-size electric G-Class.
What will the Mercedes ‘baby G-Class’ be called?
We’re still waiting on confirmation from Mercedes on precisely what the electric SUV will be called. Speaking to Auto Express way back in 2023 at the Munich Motor Show Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius referred to it as ‘little G’, though Mercedes also has registered trademarks of G 250 and G 300, which would make sense alongside the larger G 580 with EQ Technology. Mercedes is sticking with its ‘with EQ Technology’ nomenclature for EVs and is even expanding this to plug-in hybrids, so think along the lines of ‘G 300 with EQ Technology’.
What will the Mercedes ‘baby G-Class’ look like?
Whatever the new electric SUV from Mercedes will be called, thanks to our latest spy shots we know it’ll draw heavy inspiration from the full size G-Class - especially in its design.
In short it’ll look like an electric G-Class that’s been shrunk in the wash. For our exclusive render created by our expert automotive designer, we took the current G-Class design and gave it mid-size SUV proportions, but retained the key traditional elements of the G-Class.
Our image showcases a bluff front end featuring distinctive round headlights, a boxy silhouette, a flat bonnet and an upright windscreen. There’s also the trademark flat rear end featuring a spare wheel cover on a side-hinged rear door; even the clunky door handles (rather than contemporary flush-fitting handles offered on other electric Mercedes models) have been retained.
Since then, we have seen the baby G-Class testing a few times, confirming the accuracy of our exclusive image. The most recent test car spotted in the snow gives us a better look at the details like the chunky door handles (which Mercedes was keen to point out on the electric G-Class), side-opening rear door, squared-off wheel arches and protruding rear bumper. The lights, front and rear, are mirrored on the current G-Class too.
It’s worth noting that the spare wheel cover on the test cars we’ve seen will probably provide a space to store the charging cables - just like you’d find on the G 580 with EQ Technology. On that car there’s a no-cost option of the traditional spare wheel on the back door, if you’d prefer.
The interior, like the exterior, should gain plenty of inspiration from the current G-Class, with squared-off turbine air vents, an oversized grab handle for the passenger and an upright driving position. It’ll also run Merc’s latest MBUX system with vast touchscreens and slick user interfaces.
What will underpin the new baby G?
Sitting beneath the full-size G-Class, the smaller model will obviously have a lower and narrower body with a shorter wheelbase - the latter could actually help it provide just as much off-road ability as the larger car. We’ll have to wait and see if it becomes ‘Schoeckl approved’ - the mountain in Graz, Austria where Mercedes tests all of its G-Class models - from diesel and petrol to pure-electric.
The baby G will enter the market to give the legions of G-Class fans a smaller and more urban-friendly option. However, to avoid diluting the G-Class magic, Mercedes is not cutting corners in the new vehicle’s development.
Markus Schäfer, who was Mercedes’ Chief Technology Officer until December 2025, told Auto Express: “The G is [a] very special and authentic car, so the mini G has to be authentic. So I cannot just take an existing platform; I have to create my own platform modules and that’s what’s happening.”
This suggests that huge amounts of work have gone into the development of a new chassis that has similar appeal to today’s G-Class, only at a smaller scale. However, the baby G will have one important difference, Schäfer explained: “It’s not a ladder frame to this extent, but in terms of wheel size and articulation, it’s a completely new development we have had to do.”
Without a ladder chassis, it’s possible that the new baby G-Class won’t have the same sort of driving feel as the original, but Schäfer acknowledged this by telling us: “We spent a lot of time tuning this car, and over time started to develop so many unique components to make it a very good-looking car and very very capable. In fact, we designed far too many unique parts, but we believe this is what it needs.”
In terms of powertrain, Schäfer was less revealing, saying: “I don’t want to go into those details, but just looking at the current capabilities and what’s needed, I came more and more to the conclusion that it has to be unique.”
We expect the baby G to utilise a modified version of the brand’s new MB.EA platform - recently put to use by the CLA EV. While the electric CLA is single-motor right now, a dual-motor version is coming with up to 349bhp and an all-important four-wheel drive system, which should give us a better idea of the power offered in the baby G.
We know the baby G we spotted is an EV thanks to its blanked-off grille, though it’s not yet known whether the option of an ICE powertrain has been discounted entirely. In other comments, Schäfer also ruled out range-extender powertrains on small to medium-sized models, which would include the new G.
Details on the battery size haven’t been revealed, but it’s certain to be smaller than the huge 116kWh battery found in the G 580 with EQ Technology.
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