Maybach, Mercedes-Benz’s ultra-luxury division, is in a bit of a sticky situation.When Mercedes-Benz decided to start up a new brand to compete with the world’s finest luxury cars (Rolls Royce and Bentley), the brand decided to strike at the heart of limousine territory.
Using Mercedes’ finest engines and their cutting edge technology, Maybach released the 57 and 62 sedans, which could aptly be described as road-going private jets. Despite the awesome power, the amenities and the ability to customize every single aspect of the car, Maybachs didn’t catch on, and as a result have underperformed in terms of sales.
The brand is aware of the source of this problem, and seems prepared to do something about it. A source at Maybach revealed that internally, Maybach realizes that there’s no issue with the brand itself, but rather it’s the design of the product that it sells. A couple of years ago they built a one-off, boldly styled super coupe concept called the Exelero in collaboration withGerman tire-maker Fulda. It might’ve been a one-off test-bed that ended up as a show car, but the Exelero created more of a stir for Maybach than its existing 57/62 ever did.
Does this mean that there’s an Exelero in the future? Not quite, but Maybach has some plans that will expand the brand and hopefully increase its sales. Currently, there are three different types of vehicles that have spurred interest amongst highly favored exotic brands. They are the four-door coupe, initiated by Mercedes’ CLS, the limousine convertible, recently shown as the Ocean Drive concept with a three-pointed star on the grille, and the evergreen sport utility vehicle - M-B has plenty of those. Maybach is considering all three for production.
The four-door coupe is the prime candidate for consideration, as it’s everything that Maybach feels it needs to succeed. Besides the fact that every automaker from Audi to Volkswagen is interested in producing one of these, Maybach executives know that there’s big money flowing from this genre judging by the number of recent entrants intothis segment, such as the Porsche Panamera and the Aston Martin Rapide. This supposed car would be the Maybach equivalent to the Mercedes-Benz CLS, but it would have the underpinnings of an S-Class rather than an E-Class, and power from the AMG-series twin-turbocharged V12. Besides sporting a new and aggressive look, it would most certainly feature the hallmark tinted glass roof.
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