Mercedes-Benz
Concept IAA
Following
its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, the Mercedes-Benz Concept
IAA is back in a comprehensive image gallery and two fresh videos.
The
Intelligent Aerodynamic Automobile is a very sleek four-door coupe concept with
a drag coefficient of just 0.19 and an extendable body. You’ve read that right,
the body is actually stretched by up to 390 mm when the vehicle hits 80 km/h
(50 mph). It does so to improve aerodynamics even further as a way to make the
concept more fuel-efficient. The shape and design of the car can be described
as a CLS from the future and it’s impressive that Mercedes-Benz managed to keep
the car sexy even though focus was primarily on aerodynamics.
The elegant cabin takes cues from the S-Class Sedan and
S-Class Coupe, but with a high-tech twist as most of the functions are now
touch-operated. The designers kept the layout clean and functional, ending up
with a beautiful minimalist design.
Unsurprisingly,
the concept is alternatively-powered as it mixes a gasoline engine with an
electric motor to achieve a combined output of 279 PS. This plug-in
hybrid arrangement enables the IAA Concept to offer a pure electric range of 66
km. When it runs as a hybrid, the vehicle will have CO2 emissions of
just 31 g/km. This is truly impressive given the car’s large footprint: 5040
millimeters long (5430 mm in aerodynamic mode), 1995 mm wide, 1305 mm high, and
with a 2975-mm wheelbase. There’s no word about weight, but you can imagine
it’s not exactly light.
It
will remain strictly as a concept, but it shows Mercedes-Benz’s continuous
advancements in aerodynamic efficiency and this will obviously impact future
production cars.
