This week, Mercedes will unveil its Maybach crossover EV concept in Beijing. Maybach’s 2014 revival began in Beijing, so you could say Beijing is the brand’s adoptive city. A Beijing debut not only indicates the sales conversion potential of a car sporting the Maybach badge in China’s capital city. It indicates Mercedes-Maybach’s continued commitment to the Chinese market, and China’s commitment to the EV generally.
Mercedes’ name for the concept crossover—Vision Mercedes-Maybach Ultimate Luxury—reflects this desire for Maybach as a brand to conflate progressive and pampering, traditionally uneasy cousins in the world of high-end cars, especially in China. In doing so, the company creates a powerfully psychologically liberating sales technique.
Notice, in the name: no ‘crossover,’ ‘car,’ ‘vehicle’ to conclude this marvelous bit of catch-all marketing. The phrase begins with ‘vision’ and ends with ‘luxury.’ Two words, and, regardless of which stress point holds greater appeal to an individual buyer, a neat distillation of the message Mercedes would like to broadcast as the ethical foundation of the re-reborn Maybach, especially in China.
Hence, the wood used for the concept’s interior trim—and to enhance the concept’s on-board tea set—is ebony, which, the Mercedes website readily informs, is imbued with magical properties in Chinese culture. ‘Magic wood,’ in fact. That’s spiritual luxury as well as material. The concept webpage also describes an ‘east-west’ dialogue of design language, but the fundamental collective tongue in use in this case is, of course, that of commercial exchange.
The concept is intended to be a road-worthy sanctuary for occupants, and it looks it. The seats—in hand-stitched nappa leather, accented with rose gold—are extensively adjustable, and can compensate even for the demands of individual calf muscles.
The concept represents the best effort yet at making a crossover exterior visually attractive. More importantly, it offers a sense of arrival to crossover buyers with deep pockets, eastern or western, and broadens exposure to Maybach’s electricity-driven vision of luxury.
