For decades, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have been trading blows in the high-end luxury sedan market. The BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class have consistently been among the best luxury cars in the world, with the latter taking the crown more often than not. A new one is currently in the works and some photos of it completely devoid of camouflage have just leaked.
In these new photos, we see the 2021 Mercedes-Benz S-Class almost in its entirety; we see its front end, grille, headlights, taillights and even its interior. On the outside, the new S-Class looks like, well, an S-Class. Plus, the angles of these photos are poor and we can’t really get a good idea of its design language with its proportions, so we won’t judge its exterior just yet.
However, we do get a good look at its new interior and, let’s be real, that’s what really matters and it looks very interesting. The first thing to note is the massive new infotainment screen, which is very Tesla-like but is built into the waterfall affect of the center console, so it’s tilted up toward the driver. That’s actually quite nice, as it will make the new touchscreen much easier to use and see than if it were upright like in a Tesla. There’s also a massive screen ahead of the steering wheel for the gauge cluster, which now pops out from the dash, iPad-style.
What’s really interesting is that there seem to be a massive hole in the dash, behind the digital gauge screen. Could this be some sort of enormous head-up display? If so, that might be an incredible thing to see. Considering the fact that we’re hearing a potential Level 3 autonomous driving system in the new S-Class, the HUD could be as massive as it is to house the self-driving graphics ahead of the driver.
Overall, this new Mercedes-Benz S-Class looks really good inside. Sure, this specific car has a bit too much piano black trim, which is just glossy plastic. In general, though, this looks really nice and will be the car for the next-gen 7 Series to beat.
