WITH the three engineering priorities — Intelligent Drive, Efficient Technology and Essence of Luxury — the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class extends the boundaries of technology on many levels.
The S-Class is not just a technological spearhead for Mercedes-Benz but for automotive development as a whole.
As with every generation before it, the customers expect the new S-Class to set standards across the board to retain its accolade as “the best automobile in the world.” Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, says: “Rather than being about safety or aesthetics, power or efficiency, comfort or dynamism, our aspirations were ‘the best or nothing’ in every respect. No other car stands for the Mercedes-Benz brand promise more than the S-Class.”
Perfection to the last detail results in “The Essence of Luxury.”
This pursuit of the best is particularly noticeable in the interior — whether it is the seats or the air conditioning, the controls or the design, the infotainment or the comfort and safety in the rear — new ideas, their painstaking realization, and highest perceived quality underpin the high standards that the engineers have set for the Mercedes-Benz flagship model — and for themselves.
The same applies to safety. What started with PRE-SAFE 10 years ago and continued with DISTRONIC PLUS has now resulted in a new dimension of motoring: comfort and safety are merged into one. Mercedes-Benz refers to this as Intelligent Drive. A whole host of new systems makes the new S-Class even more comfortable and even safer.
The Mercedes-Benz S-Class is so efficient that it almost sounds utopian: within ten years Mercedes-Benz, by realizing Efficient Technology, has almost halved fuel consumption in the 150 kW output category to 4.4 liters per 100 km, for example, while the drag coefficient of the new S-Class (cd=0.24) clearly undercuts the previous model’s figure and sets a new benchmark in this segment. The S 300 BlueTEC HYBRID is set to go even lower still with a cd figure of 0.23 thanks to additional aerodynamic optimization measures. Furthermore, the new model is the world’s first car to dispense entirely with light bulbs in favor of LEDs, pointing the way ahead once again.
People all over the world can recognise a Mercedes-Benz straight away. The classic Mercedes face runs like a golden thread through the brand’s history.
“The sophisticated design of the S-Class has always been an expression of luxury and automotive grandeur of its era. And our new S-Class continues this tradition,” says design chief Gorden Wagener.
100 years or so after the introduction of electric lighting in motor vehicles, Mercedes-Benz is now making a complete switch to LED technology - the new S-Class is the first vehicle in the world whose interior and exterior do without a single light bulb, and sees Mercedes-Benz building on its pioneering role in the lighting sector. The lighting’s multi-level functionality is another world first: Out of consideration for any road users behind, the intensity of the brake lights is reduced at night or while waiting at traffic lights, for example. Almost 500 LEDs illuminate the road, the vehicle, the interior and the boot.
“The new S-Class achieves consumption and emissions figures that only a few years ago seemed utopian, even for executive cars,” says Prof. Thomas Weber, member of the Daimler Board of Management responsible for Group Research and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars Development. “And this is just the start of our ‘Green Leadership’ initiative: soon to be followed by the S 500 Plug-In HYBRID - the first S-Class with a fuel consumption lower than four liters per 100 km.” The S-Class line-up therefore includes the full range from petrol and diesel models to petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrids for the first time.
What’s more, the new S-Class is the world’s first car to be able to detect bumps on the road ahead. If ROAD SURFACE SCAN detects such unevenness by means of the stereo camera, MAGIC BODY CONTROL instantaneously sets up the suspension to deal with the new situation. This innovative suspension system is available as an option for the eight-cylinder models. Standard equipment for the new S-Class includes the continuously operating Adaptive Damping System ADS PLUS and an enhanced version of the full air suspension system AIRMATIC.
2014 Mercedes S-Class: Perfection to the last detail
