What does a car look like? The answer to this question will differ depending on when exactly you ask it: yesterday, today or sometime in the future. One thing remains constant though – a car should be aesthetic, speak to our emotions and inspire.

“Design is also seduction,” says Steffen Köhl, head of Advanced Design at Mercedes-Benz. “We want to create something for people. Something that they like to look at, like to touch. Something they really love.”

Mercedes-Benz has developed a special design language specifically for this promise of luxury: Sensual Purity. This underlying message is behind the concept and philosophy of all Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

“Design is holistic. It affects every detail on and in the car,” explains Steffen Köhl. “And here at Mercedes-Benz, we live design like hardly any other brand does.”

Innovative exteriors

Designers at the Sindelfingen headquarters in Germany, along with the four international design studios, work to create innovative exterior designs for Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes-Maybach vehicles.

For decades, they have been guided by a template that was created by engineers. The engine at the front, the boot at the rear, the driver’s cab with seats in between – the ‘three-box proportion’ on which sedans have traditionally been based up until now.

And yet: “Progressiveness also means taking a radical approach to something,” says Steffen Köhl. “Everything starts with proportions.”

By this, he means a paradigm shift is currently taking place – a shift from the classic three-box design to a curved, more flowing form. This is known as the one-bow design, a dream that was turned into reality with both the all-electric EQS Sedan and EQE Sedan.

Design with a difference

Replacing the traditional three-part construction, the side view of the all-electric luxury sedan stretches seamlessly along a curved line, its surfaces blending harmoniously into a single unit.

Köhl and his design team kicked off the electric evolution in 2015 with the Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion show car, characterised by its seamless, uniform exterior and large LED light modules at the front and rear. A few short years later, we presented the EQS Sedan: the real-life adaptation of the VISION EQS, a concept car that opened the door to a new automotive aesthetic at the 2019 IAA Motor Show, and also a study from the Advanced Design division.

“We want to distinguish ourselves visually with the EQ concept, but not divorce ourselves from the cosmos of the Mercedes-Benz design philosophy. On the contrary, we want to expand this,” says Steffen Köhl.

While the EQS Sedan possesses the same luxury elements as the S-Class, it has been imbued with its own unique character. This is evident from the car’s distinctive face. The radiator grille has been replaced with the Black Panel front – a deep black surface with the three-dimensional star pattern between the headlights. This structural alliance is surrounded by illuminated strips, which are also at the rear.

The horizontal light frame is a distinctive design feature, as is staging the vehicles using light and colours.

Sensuous surfaces

This is a reference to rose gold-coloured copper, one of the essential components in a battery. The deliberate contrasts created in the interior provide a counterpoint to the visual union of sensuous large surfaces and illuminated strips on the exterior.

The digital MBUX Hyperscreen in the EQS Sedan is an exciting, progressive contrast to the classic materiality of the other interior elements, which include leather seats and elaborate stitching. The impeccable craftsmanship seen throughout the car’s interior will serve as a design template for the upcoming all-electric EQS SUV and EQE SUV, too.

“The exterior, however, is more like a sculpture. There are fewer components which we can design.”

The designers created another element of tension by combining emotionally warm and cool, technoid colours – an unlikely dichotomy that nevertheless comes together to form a perfect whole. The colours symbolise both emotion and mind, heart and brain.

Because driving a car “should still be a sensual, emotional experience; it should feel light, yet at the same time dynamic, crisp and sporty”, as designer Steffen Köhl describes it. “An electric car should be fun. And seductive.”

Discover the all-electric EQS Sedan and all new EQS SUV here.

By Julia Mengeler