Yahoo Autos The Colors of Money: Next S-class Will Glow Inside
A new Mercedes-Benz S-class is due in 2020, and we’ve got some insight into changes we can expect to see in the cabin of Stuttgart’s flagship luxury sedan. These emerged as we interviewed the company’s director of interior design, Hartmut Sinkwitz, at the reveal of the Vision Mercedes-Maybach Ultimate Luxury during the 2018 Beijing auto show.
We’ve already spied the next S-class testing and, while those photos don’t suggest that exterior changes will be dramatic, there are some aspects that will enhance the interior, one that is already plush on the current car. Sinkwitz says we can expect the design to place a greater focus on appealing to occupants’ sense of touch. This will manifest in various ways, including ditching the current scroll wheel interface for the COMAND infotainment systems and replacing it with touchscreen and touchpad systems like those found in the latest E-class.
Today’s pair of side-by-side 12.3-inch screens also will change. Sinkwitz says that the screens must evolve in the executive-level sedan-and that there will be a new screen-but not necessarily just one huge one, which Sinkwitz considers impersonal and not very warm. Instead, Sinkwitz said, the screens on the Ultimate Luxury concept shown in China, wherein there are a pair of active fields displayed within a broad, horizontal glass panel, hint at what we can expect on future Mercedes luxury models from the next GLE-class on up.
Furthermore, we can expect significant changes to interior lighting. When the current-generation S-class (codenamed W222) debuted, it wowed with seven different ambient light colors to choose from, including five dimming levels and four dimming zones in its all-LED cabin. Mercedes recently upped the interior ante with the E-class, which boasts 64 different ambient lighting colors on a wide spectrum. And while Benz has lead the way here, Sinkwitz believes there is room to push the design envelope further with lighting effects.
• Benz’s New Infotainment Interface Test-Fingered
• Instrumented Test: 2018 Mercedes-Benz S450
• Research Mercedes-Benz S-class: Photos, prices, reviews, news and more
“There are more opportunities than we currently have. Look for greater uses of both direct and indirect lighting. Look for ambient lighting to expand its presence in the cabin.” The director of Mercedes interior design pointed out that the forthcoming 2019 A-class boasts cabin vents that change color based on air temperature, and that we could see a similar application in the top-of-the-range Swabian successor, along with other new features.
You Might Also Like
