PARIS MOTOR SHOW: Sculpture heralds beautiful Benz return

Mercedes-Benz board member and head of design Professor Dr Gordon Wagener says a return to beautiful Mercedes models is just around the corner.

Speaking at this week's Paris Motor Show, the at-times controversial Prof Wagener said the Aesthetic S design sculpture unveiled at the show was more than simply a pointer to the styling of the new S-Class. Rather the design boss suggests it is a harbinger of Mercedes' new design language – a language he says will return to using "beautiful, appealing shapes ".

"We don't want to talk about new S-Class [today]. This [Aesthetic S] is starting the first approach into [showing off] our new design language," Prof Wagener told motoring.com.au.

"[The sculpture is ] Basically showing the difference between the cars that are out on the show stand which – like the new A-Class – are very expressive and, on the other hand, [the next generation] that will be rather clean and timeless," he explained.

According to Prof Wagener, the new Mercedes-Benz core design language is changing. He says between now and 2015, the new direction – as shown in key aspects of the Aesthetic S – will be obvious.

"If you look where we are today we are rather generic – surface and line, surface and line. In the future everything will be integrated, sophisticatedly integrated with beautiful, appealing shapes.

"The key will be the execution, which will be different on small cars than it will be on big cars. But it will have that one significant Mercedes-Benz style," Prof Wagener stated.

He said Mercedes will not be following the same path as other manufacturers. "Luxury has to be individual, so the key in our philosophy is to provide both a strong product character and a strong brand identity. That's basically what we are previewing [with Aesthetic S]."

Wagener says Mercedes will not label the new look.

"We don't use a fancy word like Kinetic Design or something like that [to label the new language]. Mercedes-Benz design is what it is. You will see the brand completed in around 2015. That's where the 'picture' will be very obvious where Mercedes-Benz [design] has evolved to. Until then we are kind of in a transition period.

"If you look at the [typical] three to five year development times, you’ll see that we will still have cars that are not completely embodied into this complete design philosophy, [but] you will see, with every new car coming, where the journey is going and I think it's going to be exciting.”

Read more Paris Motor Show stories at motoring.com.au

See all the photos from the Paris Motor Show at motoring.com.au

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