Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet

         Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriole

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After fizzling out ignominiously a few years ago as a stand-alone Rolls-Royce and Bentley competitor, Maybach is resurgent as a sub-brand for Mercedes-Benz. It’s selling stretched S-class sedans under the Mercedes-Maybach badge in considerable numbers, including many V-12s in North America and those plus lesser-engined models in China. Now it’s launching a stunning convertible at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance: Meet the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 cabriolet.

Stretching some 236 inches in length, this Maybach is grandly proportioned. It’s not made for tight parking spots; it would claim the prime space in front of any venue anyway.

Powered by a 738-hp fully electric powertrain, the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 cabriolet is said to be able to travel more than 200 miles on a charge. A quick-charging system can add 60 miles of range in five minutes, the company said. There are four electric motors, one for each wheel, allowing for all-wheel drive and torque-vectoring functionality. Performance claims include zero to 60 mph in less than four seconds and a top speed governed at 155 mph.

Executed in Nautical Blue Metallic and fitted with 24-inch wheels featuring 26 spokes and a rose-gold center lock, the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 cabriolet is the open-top version of last year’s coupe concept that took Pebble Beach by surprise. Up front, a grille with 25 vertical slats represents the new face of the brand. You will see it elsewhere in the future.

D fabric top features rose gold threads, and it opens to reveal an incredibly sophisticated interior with a classic two-spoke steering wheel, futuristic lighting effects, quilted leather inspired by Chesterfield sofas, and open-pore wood with aluminum accents. The digital instrumentation incorporates physical needles—elements that Daimler describes as “hyperanalog.” The planked wooden floor plays up a maritime theme.

Being an electric car, the 6’s incredibly long front end, with its twin center-hinged hoods, doesn’t house a conventional engine. Maybach has decided to put the space to other uses, with compartments dedicated to specially fitted luggage, umbrellas, even silverware. It’s a playful element in a hyper-luxury-car concept with a serious purpose: to underscore Daimler’s commitment both to electric mobility and to the Mercedes-Maybach brand.

Design

We should have set a can of Coke—or perhaps a bottle of Dom—on the hood. Then you might better appreciate just how massive this automobile really is. Mercedes says the “6” in the name comes from its length, even though, at 5.7 meters (18.7 feet), the Vision 6 is still three decimeters short. As we’re all prone to certain exaggerations, and as Maybach already had a model called 57, we can forgive a little rounding up. At 224.4 inches, the Vision 6 is exactly as long as a Chevy Suburban. It’s wider, at 82.7 inches, but at 52.3 inches, it’s about 1.5 inches taller than a Porsche 911. The wheels that hide behind body-colored aerodynamic shields are 24 inches in diameter and carry Mercedes tri-stars in their centers.

The Maybach grille stands thigh high, with chrome blades like a bread slicer’s, ready to julienne pedestrians’ legs. There’s more chrome, of course, tracing the edge of the front splitter, along the rocker panels, and around the windows. A spear of metal emblazoned with the car’s full name breaks up the vastness and rigorously pared-down surfacing of each body side while obscuring the gullwing doors.

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When he describes the Maybach concept as “exaggerated,” Mercedes design chief Gorden Wagener is not exaggerating. At least not until he says, “It’s not so far out there.”

Yes, it has this distinctive bit of Mercedes character, because the first word in Maybach is actually Mercedes. But no shiny bits do as much to proclaim the superiority of the driver as the twin chrome strips that extend from the front edge of the hood back almost to the taillights. With a curve only slightly greater than the horizon and nearly as long, these thin, taut character lines give Maybach’s leviathan an energy missing from most land yachts.

Powertrain

Speaking of energy, the Vision 6 is an electric car. Why? Perhaps because Pebble Beach is in Tesla Country. Better to ask why, if it is electric, does it need a hood the size of a CEO’s conference table? What’s actually under there besides fitted luggage?

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Since the Vision 6 is only a model, its power source could have been anything—solar, Soylent Green, a decommissioned Russian nuclear reactor. This makes the somewhat conservative choice rather underwhelming: A permanent-magnet AC motor is mounted at each corner to provide all-wheel drive and deliver a combined 738 horsepower. It’s underwhelming, but also conven­ient. TheSLS AMG Electric Drive used the same setup. Mercedes says that’s sufficient for the Vision 6 to do zero to 62 mph in less than four seconds and hit a top speed governed at 155 mph. Range is stated at more than 200 miles from its 80-kWh battery, which is packaged under the floor. Apparently nobody at Daimler heard that Tesla now offers a 100-kWh pack.

One other bit of reality amid this surreal and flamboyant assemblage of parts is that the Maybach uses the Combined Charging System (CCS) for fast DC charging. Daimler is one of the backers of this European standard offering an alternative to Tesla’s proprietary Supercharger network. The Vision 6 is said to support a future version of the standard that would deliver 350 kW from a public charging ­station, rather than the 50 kW most CCS chargers deliver now. (Tesla’s network currently can deliver up to 135 kW.) Mercedes says this would enable adding 62 miles of range to the battery in just five minutes.