The new Mercedes GLB is a refreshingly rugged SUV

With its roof-mounted spotlights, sump guard, built-in roofbox and chunky tyres, it ticks the macho 4x4 box while simultaneously sexing up all the virtues of a good mid-size MPV. These include a versatile seven-seat cabin layout and the ability to take four child seats. For desert raider think school-run special.

Dressing up family values with a sense of off-roading adventure is Merc’s latest move to dominate the premium compact class with the ever-growing A-class family of cars. With all its assorted body styles, this family now accounts for one in four of all Mercs sold.

We can see the first GLB adding to that big time, adding more room and practicality than the sleeker sportier GLA offers while returning to the high-riding boxiness and walk-in cabin access lost with the latest B Class, now badged a “sports tourer”. One thing’s for sure, in the world of the SUV there’s always a niche somewhere that needs filling…

A long wheelbase is key to the new model’s versatile interior. It is not just longer than that of the GLA, by 130mm or five inches, but a little longer as well than its equally new B Class cousin. The extra does mean this is now a bigger breed of compact car – over 4.6m long and 1.9m tall with it – but one that can, for the first time in any compact Mercedes, offer three rows of seating.

The extra perches are two individual seats that pop up out of the boot floor; Mercedes says they are okay for “medium sized” people. To make the most of the space, the mid-row bench slides fore and aft, and also folds flat, so your options are a spacious five-seater complete with reclining rear backrests, a seven-seater, or a two-seater with long and flat load deck.

In another break with B Class tradition, it’s a sexy looking interior, too. All the new A-class cars are notable for their particularly slick and fully featured cabins, but, echoing the off-road adventure theme of the exterior, the GLB’s interior offers something fresh by playing up the outdoorsy theme to great effect. Chestnut brown nubuck, orange highlights, perforated leather, open-pore walnut and shiny knobs made to appear as if machined from solid aluminium all feature.

But then the car you see here is still, officially at least, a concept. That is how GLB is being unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show this week, and it’s exactly how the GLA was unveiled at the same show six years ago – and that car was in the showrooms six months later. If the GLB isn’t in the showrooms by the winter we will be very surprised; we just hope the off-road flavour, the spotlights, integrated roofbox and indulgent interior options, all make production with it.

As shown in Shanghai, the GLB comes with the 224PS (221bhp) four-cylinder engine mated to an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission feeding all four wheels via 4Matic all-wheel-drive – all as familiar from other A-class family members. New to this model are driving modes that comprise Comfort, Sport and Off-road, the latter distributing torque 50-50 front to rear.  No other off-road gizmos are likely; in terms of off-road ability Mercedes points to nothing more than “rough farm tracks”.

For Mercedes, like its rivals, you can never have too many SUVs – last year the three-pointed star brand shifted 820,000 of them, representing the largest market segment for the firm. With other new Merc SUVs like the big-power Mercedes-AMG GLC 63 and super-luxury, super-sized new GLS also launching this week, there are loads more SUVs still to come…