Mercedes SLC Might Not Get A Replacement – And China Is To Blame

The Mercedes SLC might not get replaced at all, with Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche saying that a new model is far from certain.

Zetsche told Autocar that the market is shifting and so is the company’s model range. “These speciality cars have lost their share in our total portfolio,” he said. “For a particularly long time, China has led growth, and China shows little interest in cars such as these.

“Our portfolio is not something defined for eternity. We revisit constantly, and that’s what we’re doing. Any decisions we will communicate in the future.”

Mercedes development boss -and future Daimler CEO– Ola Källenius also said that the brand is looking to make changes to model range in the coming years, without referring specifically to the SLC.

“We’ve has 20-plus years of uninterrupted broadening of the portfolio,” he said. “In 2022, we’ll have 40-plus models. Even if we love every child – and we do – we’ll be rational. We will not hesitate to slim down if we look at the economics. We will look at the next 10 years and cater to where the market is going.”

Slimming down the model range doesn’t necessarily mean that Mercedes won’t explore yet more niches. “We won’t rule out creativity,” Källenius said.

This isn’t the first time we hear about a possible demise of the SLC, as AMG boss Tobias Moers also said last May that the future of the two-seater roadster is “under discussion”. Unlike the SLC, Mercedes is keen on replacing the bigger SL, which is going to be “a real wow car, a stunning car” according to Zetsche once it arrives in 2021.