The Mercedes Vision Iconic Is A Concept For Cartoon Supervillains

‘Is the next Mercedes S-Class hiding behind this massive grille?’ That’s what we asked yesterday when Merc design boss Gorden Wagener hopped on Instagram to tease something sitting quite literally in the shadows of an enormous light-up grille. Turns out it wasn’t, because what was hiding behind that massive grille was this: the Mercedes Vision Iconic concept.

It’s a gigantic two-door coupe drawing design inspo from right throughout Mercedes’ history, most notably taking the thrusting proportions of the most luxurious cars from the 1930s. Though its details are very different, it has the same sort of proportions as the Jaguar Type 00 concept, making it look like the sort of thing a latter-day Cruella de Vil would knock about in on her way to do some unspeakable things to puppies.

What you really can’t miss, though, is the enormous illuminated grille up front. It’s much like the one on the new GLC and, presumably, a lot more Mercs to come, and now, it’s joined in its luminosity by the upright Mercedes bonnet emblem.  Along the side, there’s a set of aero-friendly wheels, and it tapers into a minimalist, boat-tailed rear with more than a little 300SL about its shape. 

There’s one more (currently hypothetical) thing to take note of with the exterior. Mercedes says it’s researching tiny solar modules that can be applied to the bodywork of EVs, almost like a paste, which could be used to top up the battery. It imagines these being spread all over the Vision Iconic, and says that when applied over an area of 11 square metres, they could provide nearly 7500 miles of travel a year if you lived somewhere sunny enough.

All this is lovely, but really, the centrepiece of the Vision Iconic is the interior. It has a bench seat providing intimate seating for two and covered in blue velvet, with the floor clad in deep blue art deco-inspired blue marquetry.

There’s a vintage-style four-spoke steering wheel featuring the Mercedes logo encased in a glass orb like a snowglobe. The real showpiece, though, is the ‘Zeppelin’. That’s Merc’s name for the single-piece glass dashboard, housing a series of small but intricate analogue instruments. Unlike a real Zeppelin, it's not filled with highly flammable gas. We hope.

Merc also says that it’s working on new processing systems designed to cope with the ever-greater requirements modern cars are placing on their existing computers, and that the Vision Iconic is equipped for nearly full autonomous driving, up to the point of being able to have a nap on the motorway while the car goes about its business.

Should you fancy actually twirling that big steering wheel yourself, though, the Vision Iconic is also said to have a brand new steer by wire system, designed to work in tandem with rear-axle steering to make such an enormous car more manoeuvrable in the city.

It’s almost certain that nothing precisely like this will ever make production. As usual with concepts of this ilk, it’s designed to showcase where Mercedes’ design is heading (right to the centre of Grillesville, it would seem), as well as some of the technologies we can expect to see on its future models. Still, if you’re a self-respecting cartoon criminal mastermind, we’re sure you’re feeling a bit short-changed right now that this won’t be going on sale.