Meet the first ever 2020 Mercedes S-Class prototype
to be captured on camera, seemingly hiding a sleeker design underneath its
heavy body cladding. The prototype was spotted by Carscoops spy photographers after a
convoy of current S-Class models drove by, alongside an Audi A8 and a BMW
7-Series. If that’s not enough to raise suspicions, we don’t know what is.
Despite the fact that there is very little
information regarding the next-generation S-Class, we’ll take it step by step
and tell you everything we know.
It’s likely that it will feature the
German automaker’s brand new design language, which was debuted on the all-new
CLS and more recently, the all-new A-Class. If you look closely at the body
cladding, you will notice how the bonnet will actually taper off more towards
the grille, but also how there don’t appear to be any significant creases along
the profile of the vehicle.
The current S-Class has three, one running alongside
the shoulder line, another just underneath the door handles, and a third one
slowly bending upwards starting from just behind the front wheel arch, near the
sills. Meanwhile, the headlights seem to be positioned lower than on the
current car, flanking a possibly wider grille, while the taillights could very
well be horizontal in nature instead of the chunky teardrop ones that we see
nowadays.
If anything is known regarding the 2020
S-Class’ engine range, but we can expect a multitude of petrol and diesel
units, joined by plug-in hybrid and fully electric versions either at launch,
or later on at some point.
What we do know is that Mercedes now holds “the
ball” when it comes to safety and connectivity tech in this sector, since the
new-generation A8 is already here and BMW will only be facelifting their
7-Series in the near future. According to Mercedes R&D boss Ola Källenius,
the 2020 S-Class will be the automaker’s “first Level 3 car where you can
obviously have some parts of the driving experience autonomous.” Level 4 and 5 features
are still a long ways away.
