You can now take your Mercedes X-Class camping

“It is important that our vehicles appeal to camper van bodybuilders as well, of course, to end customers,” Mercedes explains. Now, ‘camper van bodybuilders’ isn’t what you think it means.

It’s not a niche where bodybuilding enthusiasts exclusively use camper vans to increase muscle mass (though if this is indeed a thing, do get in touch), but instead a host of companies who turn your vehicle into a camper van.

Step forward, the Mercedes-Benz X-Class. At this year’s Caravan, Motor, Touristik show, Mercedes is showing off a few new concepts that turn the posh pick-up truck into a mobile human accommodation unit. That’s right, an X-Class… as a camper ‘van’.

The first concept is from ‘bodybuilder’ Tischer, and it’s a big un’. You get a fully demountable cabin that fits onto the back of the X, featuring a “comfortable” sleeping system in an alcove some 150cm wide. There’s two metres worth of headroom, a kitchen with a three-burner gas stove and “three cosy seats”. Amazing.

You can transform said cosy seats into a second bed if required, and there’s also a fold-away wash basin and a swivelling toilet unit, which sounds lightly treacherous in the wrong hands if we’re completely honest. There’s even space enough to take a shower.

The second concept on offer is an altogether more slender unit via a company named VanEssa. Weighing in at 250kg, it’s a pull-out ‘module’ slotted into the X’s generous load bay featuring a fully equipped kitchen. Features include items you might readily require to, um, cook: ‘cooking facilities’, a washing-up area, and space for plates and supplies.

A second pull-out module provides space for more things, while VanEssa claims the load compartment is protected via a cover made out of teak wood.

Of course, if this is just too fiddly, then you can plump for the V-Class Marco Polo, or indeed, this rather excellent 1950s Merc minivan...

Top Gear's first drive of the Mercedes-Benz X-Class