Mercedes G-class Cabriolet Will Arrive Next Year As New 4x4 Soft-top

Mercedes-Benz has published the first images of the new G-Class Cabriolet, which is expected to arrive next year almost a decade after the last open-top version of the hardcore off-roader was phased out.

Pictured in Austria, the new soft-top G-Class is undergoing early dynamic road and track tests before heading to Sweden for colder, off-road testing.

Technical details have yet to be released, though the official pictures appear to confirm that the new open-top off-roader is based on the ICE G-Class, rather than the electric EQ model, meaning it will be offered with a choice of diesel or petrol.

The current G450d diesel uses a turbocharged 3.0-litre straight six with 362bhp, while the G500 petrol model has a turbocharged 3.0-litre six-cylinder with 443bhp. Above them is the twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8-powered G63 with 577bhp.

No launch timing has yet been disclosed, but given it is already testing and is a variant of a model already on sale, an arrival date to coincide with the start of summer in Europe – the drop-top season – is plausible.

Details of the G-Class Cabriolet were first revealed in September ahead of the Munich motor show. The German car maker has said “the G-Class portfolio will be expanded to include a cabriolet”, offered “almost everywhere in the world – and for the first time also in the US”.

These images have been published just a week after Autocar spy photographers caught sight of the new so-called Little G – the new entry model of an expanded G-Class range.

The new G-Class Cabriolet is expected to carry a hefty premium over current models, which start at more than £130,000. 

Cabriolets have long been part of the G-Class line-up, with the first, a two-door short-wheelbase model, introduced as part of the original line-up in 1979 and produced up to 2013.

Later came the ultra-luxury four-door G-Class Maybach G650 Landaulet, introduced in 2017 with a 621bhp twin-turbocharged 6.0-litre V12 petrol engine and based on the high-riding G63 4x4². Produced in a limited run of just 99 units, it combined a front hard top with a rear folding roof section, individual rear seats set back in the chassis and a price close to £600,000 in the UK