Mercedes-Benz Vision V Concept Previews A Range-Topping Electric Luxury Van That’s Coming To America

Have a conversation with any self-respecting car enthusiast — or, at least, any auto journalist — and they will eventually start talking to you about how much they love minivans. Vans in general, really. They may not be the sexiest vehicles on the road, but they’re eminently useful and often genuinely interesting in terms of design and engineering. Some vans are getting truly luxurious too, in many ways far surpassing traditional luxury rides like the sedan and SUV offerings from Bentley, Mercedes-Maybach and Rolls-Royce. The high-end chauffeur-driven van market has exploded in China and Japan, with the Europe and the Middle East growing quickly, but aside from kinda-fancy versions of minivans like the Kia Carnival and some aftermarket creations, the U.S. has yet to get any of these amazing new luxury vans.

That’s gonna change next year with the introduction of the next-generation Mercedes-Benz V-Class, which has existed for years in Europe but will finally be coming to America. While the current V-Class is a tarted-up Metris commercial van — admittedly one that can be had in a pretty awesome chauffeur-ready four-seat configuration — the new one will be a standalone model designed to be a “private lounge.” Today at the Shanghai Auto Show Mercedes unveiled the Vision V, a concept previewing the top-end version of the next V-Class that will be the most luxurious passenger-oriented vehicle in the brand’s lineup.

Full disclosure: Mercedes-Benz flew me to Germany, fed me and put me up in a hotel so I could get studio previews of the Vision V and the new CLA before their reveals, along with getting to chat with the company CEO, designers and product planners.

Yes, really. Mercedes sees vans as the next great frontier for luxury vehicles, and the Vision V is for customers with the “highest demands.” The brand says for this next generation of vans it wanted to make a clear distinction between commercial vans and privately owned ones, so while both the Metris and V-Class will ride on the newly developed electric Van.EA platform, they’ll have totally unique designs and features. You’ll be able to get versions of the V-Class with more tame interiors and seating configurations, but breaking into the top end of the market is important. The company isn’t going to market it as a van, but simply the most luxurious passenger experience you can get from Mercedes.

Mercedes remains committed to an all-electric future, especially for high-end vehicles, but internal combustion vans will stick around for the time being to bridge the gap. There will also be a Van.CA platform for combustion-engined versions of the vans, produced on the same line with 70% of the same parts as the Van.EA equivalents, but these new vans were designed with an electric-first approach like with the CLA in which the full EV will easily be the best version. Both platforms will underpin new versions of the larger Sprinter as well.

The exterior of the Vision V is pretty pared-back in terms of surfacing and detailing, but the stuff that is here is pretty wild. Its overhangs are quite short, especially at the nose, and the hood itself is short as well. The windshield is swept back, creating a slightly tapering roofline that ends in a nice spoiler. Creases over the fenders, nicely sculpted sides, and the chrome-accented window line with a forward-canted D-pillar help enhance the dynamic look. Mercedes says “the highest standards of aerodynamic performance” were needed. While Mercedes hasn’t given dimensions this thing is big, certainly longer than the current V-Class.

You could never mistake the Vision V’s front end for anything but a Mercedes. A shield-like chrome panel in the nose uses light bars to evoke the eggcrate grilles of 1960s Benzes, and the headlights feature three-pointed stars like on the new CLA. Almost 200 individual three-dimensional louvers made from illuminated glass surround the grille, and 190 more surround the headlights and sit under the hood. With the smile-shaped chrome trim along the lower end of the bumper and the hood’s pair of prominent power domes the Vision V has a characterful face, and it’s all topped off by an illuminated three-pointed star hood ornament. Those fabulous 24-inch monoblock wheels also have illuminated louvers, and the large glass tailgate is framed by more than 450 of the glass pieces to create a unique taillight signature, making up everything from the brake lights and turn signals to the high-mounted CHMSL. 

Take the fantastic padded seats, transparent storage compartments and full Crystal White Nappa leather color scheme out of the equation, and the Vision V’s interior is a pretty good idea of what the V-Class’ cabin will be like, at least for the front seats. That three-screen dashboard-spanning Superscreen display is the same as what’s in the new CLA, and the overall rectangular shapes of the center console and door panels should translate to production pretty easily. Sadly, I doubt the exposed metal supports for the screen will make their way to the production model — check out how they flow into the design of the hood bulges.

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The transparent section under the center armrest is room for tablets and phones, while the areas in the door panels hold sunglasses and a thermos. The Burmester stereo speakers are really nicely integrated into the transparent panels as well, and along with a heavy use of open-pore burr wood, polished metal and ambient lighting the whole thing has a total Star Trek vibe. The seats are made up of individual tubular cushions held together with aluminum clasps that make the surface look like one continuous piece of leather, and the aluminum bases further add to the sci-fi look.

The concept has one giant sliding “portal” door on the passenger side (the production car will have a door on each side), and it opens to reveal a truly ridiculous living room–like space for the two people in the back. A long running board deploys to make it easier to climb in, but the door opening is already huge, the ceiling is high, and the floor is flat, so I have no problem getting in or out of the seats and moving around. The seats have a similar design to the ones in the front, but they’re able to recline flat like in a first class airplane seat, much flatter than what you get in a Maybach S-Class or GLS — a feature that should be found on the production car, too.

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Placed in the display cabinets back here are a cocktail set, a handbag and a wonderfully designed chess set, which you can play on the tables that fold out from the center console between the two seats. That console can electronically slide forward and backward, automatically doing so when the seats are moved. Mounted onto the wood panels are more speakers with glass enclosures that are attached to handmade brackets, which would fit right into a house in “Minority Report.” There are 42 speakers in total for the Dolby Atmos–enabled sound system, and it sounds absolutely incredible.

Instead of open space or a simple partition wall behind the front seats, the Vision V has a glass partition that can go from transparent to opaque at the press of a button, either in sections or in full. The side windows, rear window and panoramic sunroof are also electrochromic. The glass partition doesn’t go all the way to the floor, though, instead being placed in a wood-capped console that flows up from the leather-lined floor. In that curved section of the floor, what seem like normal trim piece slats are actually transparent panels that let you see what’s housed under the floor: a retractable 65-inch 4K screen that motors up in front of the partition.

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The screen can be put up just partway, to display something like song info or an animated fireplace, or it can be extended all the way up so you can watch movies, play video games, browse the web, make video conference calls, do karaoke, or use all sorts of other apps and digital media features. You can also have a split-screen mode that shows different apps and information at once. Seven projectors found throughout the interior extend the view of whatever you’re watching onto the roof, sides and floor, and occupants are further immersed by exciters in the seats and ambient lighting that pulses and changes color along with the audio.

While the production V-Class’ interior won’t be quite this ridiculous, and it definitely won’t have the projectors or a retractable display, you can count on it having an optional partition with a massive screen. That’s something already offered in vans like the Lexus LM, Toyota Alphard, Buick Century, Zeekr 009, and others. I got to play “Forza Horizon 5” while sitting in the Vision V and see demos of the various relaxation modes and how videos look, and if I had the money for a luxury car and a driver, I’d absolutely want to be carted around in a van with a setup like this.

You’ll note that despite how extravagant this concept is, it’s still just branded as a Mercedes-Benz, not a Maybach. Is that to leave room for an even fancier Maybach version of the V-Class? The company’s representatives played coy, but it seems like a sure bet to me. The Mercedes vans team is aware of the popularity of faux Maybach conversions in the U.S., where aftermarket outfitters take basic Metris vans, put in the nicer dash from the Euro V-Class, and give the rear passenger area a total makeover with Maybach-like seats and design accoutrements. I mean, if Kim Kardashian is buying these aftermarket “Maybach” vans, surely she would buy a real Maybach van (or even “just” a Mercedes one).

Regardless, before we see that we need to see the standard V-Class first. Mercedes says the new van will be launched in 2026, which could mean a reveal before the end of this year. As for price, the current V-Class starts at around $60,000 in Germany and reaches past $100,000 with options; expect top-of-the-line versions of the new one to exceed that by quite a bit. But like I said, wild four-seaters with partitions won’t be the only versions of the V-Class we get in America. There will be plenty of normal three-row ones too, which will still be so much nicer to be shuttled in than something like an Escalade. I think the U.S. has been overdue for a new van revolution, so here’s hoping other brands follow Mercedes’ lead.

Daniel Golson / Jalopnik

Daniel Golson / Jalopnik

Daniel Golson / Jalopnik

Daniel Golson / Jalopnik