Mercedes set to unveil 2018 E-Class coupe
Two-door will make its official debut at Northern American International Auto Show
Mercedes-Benz is, once again, adding a two-door coupe variant to the E-Class lineup.
The car is pretty much everything you expect it to be: an E-Class sedan, minus the rear doors and with a few restyled bits inside and out.
It’s not unattractive by any means, coming across as a larger C-Class coupe. Or a smaller S-Class coupe, depending on how you slice it.
Compared with the previous-generation E-Class coupe, the new model is a touch longer and wider overall, giving it more interior space. And as you know, every bit of space counts in a coupe.
The E-Class coupe shares much of the same technology as the sedan.
Goodies such as LED lighting, semi-autonomous driving assists and Mercedes’ sharp 12.3-inch display in place of traditional gauges are available, while the company’s COMAND infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, plus a high-resolution 12.3-inch screen, are standard. Where the E-Class coupe differs from the sedan is in the powertrain.
For now, a twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre V-6 engine is the only one you can pick, pumping out 329 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque. That’s paired to a nine-speed automatic transmission. Mercedes’ 4Matic allwheel drive system is optional.
Rear-drive models sprint from a standstill to 100 km/h in 5.2 seconds, while 4Matic-equipped coupes complete the run in 5.5 seconds. An air suspension system is also optional. The possibility of an AMG-tuned model remains to be seen; the outgoing E-Class coupe didn’t have a high-performance variant, but given Mercedes’ recent push to proliferate the AMG lineup, we wouldn’t rule out an E43 coupe at the very least. Although deep down, we’d rather see an E63 coupe.
The 2018 Mercedes-Benz E-Class will make its official debut at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show Jan. 8 to 22 and it will hit U.S. dealers in summer 2017, so look for it in Canadian dealers around then.