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Mercedes GLE Coupe Teased Ahead of 2015 Detroit Auto Show?

Mercedes-Benz has just issued a statement suggesting their AMG division is doing rather well and announcing that the hotly-anticipated AMG Sport line will debut at the at the North American International Motor Show in Detroit.
Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe teaser 3 photos
Photo: MErcedes-Benz
GLE CoupeML Facelift / GLE
Now that's all fine and dandy, but the photo they used to announce all this and more is quite interesting. The car on the right is obviously the C 450 AMG Sport which they've officially talked about on a number of ocasions already. But what's that on the left?

The debut of the AMG Sport line perfectly coincides with the rumored reveal of the ML facelift in Detroit. Mercedes has been working on tweaking its SUV for almost two years now and there's only so much waiting the fans can take.

However, the SUV in the photo doesn't look like the ML because the roof line slopes. In the gallery below, you'll find a spy photo of the ML facelift. The greenhouse is straight and only tapers at the very end, near the boot. But what we're seeing here is a soft curve not unlike the BMW X6.

This can only mean that we're dealing with the new GLE Coupe, a derivative of the ML that will compete directly with the X6. It's based on the same platform as the old ML, but features a sportier setup, wider tracks and a coupe-like roofline.

So what is this AMG Sport? Well, it's a bit like BMW's M Performance, only not done with diesel. Behind that large AMG grille is likely a twin-turbo V6, either a 3.0 or a 3.5, pushing around 370 PS. The brakes are rather small, so it's not a true performance SUV, but it looks very good and should be just as fast as an Audi SQ5.

Mercedes says it wants to double AMG sales by 2017 and we're guessing models like this will have a huge part to play.

“The new Sport models represent a convincing proposition for our customers: genuine sports car technology becomes accessible, appealing to an even broader-ranging clientele worldwide,” AMG CEO Tobias Moers comments. “For all our dynamic growth, we remain true to our brand claim of “Driving Performance”.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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