Mercedes' Baby G-Class Could Get An Engine After All

No Cartoon, Just Right

Making a smaller version of a tough off-roader can be a serious challenge for the design department. Just ask the OG Hummer team after they transformed the original military beast into the increasingly cartoonish H2 and H3 models. Benz, though, seems to have captured the G-Class vibe in a smaller and cheaper bottle. Without destroying the character of either old or new in the process.

The baby G, mini G, g-class, or Kinderwagen, whatever you want to call it, is a box on wheels. But it's a clever box, with more curves than first glance would suggest. The box flare fenders, for example, are quite round. As are the side windows, and even the square spare tire carrier isn't a sharp square.

It helps make it look rugged, but also approachable. This isn't going to intimidate people like the real thing. We're not sure if that's a benefit or a drawback, though, for potential customers.

The stance is a bit off versus a big G, mostly because of the much lower ride height. It looks slammed, which is strange. The cutoff rear side window doesn't help, even if it makes the G look like one of the old convertible models. The half glass is probably a prototype camo sticker anyway, not a real diagonal window.

We don't know if Benz will be able to replicate the bank-vault door slam of the G-Class on this smaller and cheaper model. We do know, though, that it will have the same external side-hinged tailgate as the real thing, even if the side door hinges aren't exposed like on the big one.

Our Spies Suggest Combustion-Engine Surprise

It's very strange, but our spies suggest internal combustion is coming to the mini G, which was expected to be EV only. Mercedes-Benz first officially teased the model last fall at the IAA in Munich, saying that it would be built on its own ladder frame just like the big one.

A year before that teaser, then Benz tech boss Markus Schäfer said at CES that the small G would be purely electric, quashing internal combustion rumors. At the IAA, though, Schäfer had switched to "stay tuned." Now he's no longer with the company, and we're not sure exactly what is going on.

We can't see anything in the photos that lead our spies to conclude gas is coming, but it's possible they heard something. Not rumors or scuttlebutt, but the sounds of an engine. We'll need to wait for the next dead drop, though, to find out.

A move back to gas wouldn't be surprising. Benz is one of many automakers shuffling its electric plans, with 24 new models expected to debut this year and 13 of those coming with gas engines. Originally, its plans included being fully EV by the end of this decade.