Will Mercedes save electric car design? No, no they won’t, or rather, they can’t. This isn’t due to their inability to produce a good design. It’s because even MB themselves have been bitten by the sci-fi bug. A poisonous predator that will inflict a painfully design deluding skin irritation that will have your designers producing looks that would have the likes of D. Villeneuve or N. Blomkamp smiling through their camera. But regardless of the infestation, Merc has attempted to “design through the pain”.
Let’s start with that exterior. If we overlook the terrible wheel choice and the extremely ineffective 2 tone paint scheme, we are left with apparently… not a Mercedes. Yes, I know looks are subjective, but you can’t tell me that this looks anything like their design scheme currently running. Which in my opinion has been pretty good. The EQS strikes memories of a tesla more than a 63. C or E for that matter. That’s the sad news here for me. MB had a perfect opportunity to have an electric car give us the same feeling we get from seeing an “E 63 S” on the road. Instead, we get to ignore this.
Getting something right.
That old saying goes, “It’s what is on the inside that counts”. Not sure if Benz should use that in their marketing for this, but they could! Cause that interior works for me. I’m always a sucker for a white interior. As if they were actually functional. Here is a lesson car companies. Just cause the motor is electric now, doesn’t mean I don’t spill my sweet tea in the seat, or the kids no longer do what kids will always do.
But back to that interior. The white and blue with the darker wood is fantastic. Matching white steering wheel, come on! Man, I am gullible. I think the interior form looks like it will flow well. Of course, that could be different once physically inside it. The one continuous dash seems to work well here. I am tempted to “old man complain” about the three screens being a sales tactic to phone-addicted buyers, but I won’t. Because I hate reaching for the centre screen when I’m shotgun. Check out that storage section under the centre console, the perfect place to forget your leftovers from Captain Swashbuckle’s Fish Fry Paradise.
So in the end, it doesn’t look like Merc has the cure to my “e-car” design blues. But it was a good try, and I think that interior will work tremendously in black. Now you may be wondering why I didn’t say anything about range or power. I am sure they are fine. The reality is I refuse to look at the performance specs on e-cars right now cause the technology is changing so much so quickly, and mostly cause… I just don’t care.
Photos provided by:
Mercedes Benz USA
