Mercedes Maybach - Publicity - H 2016
Courtesy of Mercedes-BenzThe Maybach brand was reintroduced with 2016’s Mercedes-Maybach S600 — a 523 horsepower, twin-turbo sedan with a base price a touch under $200,000 that matches a private jet in terms of comfort, luxury and fuel economy.
Maybach screams excess — so much so that rapper Tyga gave one to girlfriend Kylie Jenner for her 19th birthday earlier this month — but all that excess comes at a price. Would Hollywood’s eco-set — think Leo DiCaprio and his environmentally friendly cohorts — ever drive a car with such an outsized carbon footprint?
For the eco-conscious titan of industry, the electric-powered Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 concept, revealed Thursday night at the Mercedes-Benz Star Lounge in Pebble Beach, Calif., ameliorates the nagging pressure a star in the limelight faces.
SEXY AND FUNCTIONAL: The interior of the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 concept. (Photo: Courtesy)
“We’re in a sexy world here in Hollywood,” Ron Robertson of Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills, the No. 1 Maybach salesman in the world, told The Hollywood Reporter. “In this town, people want something sexy and functional, like an electric car.”
The Vision 6, at 18.5 feet long and with a design that recalls the classic “Aero” coupes of the 1930s, hits the sexy and the smart. All long hood, low roof, massive wheels and flourishes like a round “boat tail” rear and — a Benz hallmark — a set of gullwing doors, the Vision 6 is an electric car for Hollywood’s smart and wealthy set to lust over.
Who’d want this in town?
1. Daily driver it is not, as it’s an iffy guess if the Vision would make the right turn out of Cecconi’s parking lot. With its 738 horsepower electric engine and 0-60 mph time under four seconds, a long drive up PCH — or to the studio in Burbank — would be just right.
2. You have a Maybach, you have a G-VI, you have a house on Broad Beach and your carbon footprint is massive. Presto, electric Maybach. “A lot of car-buying decisions are based on optics,” said Robertson. “The Vision 6 would be a way to show that you care and you’ve made it.”
3. Jay-Z drove the last great Maybach concept, 2004’s Exelero, in his “Lost One” video. “Of course, everyone wants something they can’t get, something rare,” said Robertson. “This is a lot of rare, a Maybach is a lot of rare.” If Maybach made the Vision 6, even in small numbers, Robertson says he would sell them all.
