Mercedes X-Class Could Get A V8 (If Customers Ask For It)

Want your pickup with a V8? Well you have plenty of choices. But while the Mercedes-Benz X-Class isn’t among them, that could change.

Speaking with Drive at the launch Australian of the V6-powered pickup, X-Class chief engineer Frank Schumacher said it an eight-cylinder model could be in the cards… if only customers would ask for it.

“If there will be wishes after the launch of the vehicle that says we need to have V8 then probably we will put in a V8, but that’s always a response on customer request,” said the auspiciously named Schumacher. “We surely can make it happen, it’s just a question of what V8 you want to put in. You can put the six-litre in, yeah, but so far there is no plan.”

The X-Class is based on underpinnings borrowed from the Nissan NP300/Navara and Renault Alaskan. To date, in their current iterations, all three have only offered four- and six-cylinder engines. So Benz would likely have some work on its hands to fit a V8 in there. But apparently it’s not out of the question.

Even in the US, where the V8 arguably still reigns as king, the big engines are typically reserved for full-size trucks – think Silverado, in Chevy terms, not Colorado. But even that’s beginning to change as hot-selling models like the Ford F-150 place an increased emphasis on turbocharged V6s.

“With a V8 you get out of the mid-size pickup but if you look at the market correctly most of the market is focussed on the four-cylinder,” noted Daimler’s Schumacher. “A ute like that’s a different size of vehicle, it is very limited to the US really – they will have their own market.”