We Drive the Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR Concept Car from Avatar

• Mercedes’ latest Vision Concept highlights environmental compatibility, just like they have on the moon Pandora in the upcoming sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water.

• The electric car is powered by a “compostable” battery devoid of rare earth elements, and has vegan seat cloth.

• We drove it, albeit very slowly, as a proof of concept, so to speak.

The 2009 science fiction movie Avatar, which takes Dances With Wolves to another planet and dives in, doesn’t have any conventional four-door sedans in it—certainly not any made by Mercedes-Benz. But that didn’t stop the German brand from making a conventional four-door sedan that could have been in the movie. Or would at least fit in with the movie’s ethos. So they did. And I drove it.

“Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR—inspired by (the movie) Avatar—is the result of an unprecedented global partnership between one of the most innovative brands in the entertainment industry and the most valuable luxury automotive brand in the world,” Mercedes said in a statement at the car’s release.

Mercedes and Lightstorm Entertainment are the two creative forces behind the car you see here, which debuted at CES two years ago. You already know Mercedes, which is making the transition from 140 years of internal-combustion power to the next 140 or so years of electric propulsion. Lightstorm is the movie production company that made the Hollywood blockbuster Avatar, and has just finished the sequel Avatar: The Way of Water.

The Avatar movies take place on the extrasolar moon Pandora, a once-paradisiacal place where tall blue human-like creatures live in perfect harmony with their environment. The idea with the car is that it, too, will live in harmony with its planet. (Work with me on this, you cynics.) The concept car is electrically powered, but not by batteries that contain any precious metals, for instance.

“(It’s a) particularly powerful and compact high-voltage battery,” Mercedes claims. “For the first time, the revolutionary battery technology is based on graphene-based organic cell chemistry and thus completely eliminates rare, toxic, and expensive earths such as metals. Electromobility thus becomes independent of fossil resources.”

Not a lot of specifics are given about the battery chemistry, but it’s just a concept—you could say it runs on good will and marketing and be technically correct. The seat backs are made from recycled ocean plastics; the floor mats are made of fast-growing reed-like material called karuun, which is similar to that found in wicker chairs, and the seat surfaces are “vegan” (just like Avatar director James Cameron!).