by Mercedes is again playing its favorite “retro games for billionaires.” The new Vision Iconic concept is a huge electric coupe that looks as if Batman decided to star in a 1930s noir film, and the film crew is working somewhere in Stuttgart.
The elongated hood, illuminated radiator grille, and elegant shapes all hint that Mercedes is no longer chasing futurism. On the contrary: it is recalling its roots—the very same Gran Turismos from the 1930s, when ladies still wore hats and gasoline cost as much as a bottle of champagne.
The Vision Iconic impresses with every detail. The body is painted with a special “solar” paint that generates electricity—up to 12,000 kilometers of range per year from sunlight alone. The interior is pure Art Deco, or, to be honest, “a museum of luxury that learned to drive”: velvet, mother-of-pearl, straw marquetry, handles made of silvered brass. The steering wheel is as if from a 1930s limousine, but without a single wire to the wheels. Everything is controlled by electronics, because mechanics are a thing of the past.
Instead of screens—dials; instead of buttons—animations that look more expensive than some cars. One of the dials even serves as a voice assistant with artificial intelligence—meaning you literally talk to the Mercedes. And it seems to listen more attentively than most people.
The Vision Iconic is designed for Level 4 autonomy. This means the driver can not only let go of the steering wheel—they can get out of the car, and the vehicle will find a parking spot on its own. Mercedes calls this “neuromorphic computing,” which mimics the work of the brain. It sounds scary, but let’s agree: if someone is going to think for us, it might as well be Mercedes, not TikTok.
Of course, most elements of the Vision Iconic will remain only in the world of concepts. But some solutions have already made their way into production models—for example, the updated radiator grille in the electric GLC. And it is quite possible that we will see something similar in the next S-Class.
