2017 Frankfurt Motor Show: Mercedes-Maybach 6 land yacht could enter production

THE Mercedes-Maybach 6 Coupe and Cabriolet concepts might seem like one of the automotive world’s ultimate flights of fancy, but a production version of the mighty Maybach 6 is not yet out of the question.

The imposing, monstrous six-metre-long coupe and cabriolet won much critical acclaim when they rolled out at the Pebble Beach Concourse d’Elegance in 2016 and 2017 respectively, but their outlandish proportions and no-compromise styling appeared to brand the pair as little more than wild concepts.

However, speaking at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Mercedes-Benz advanced exterior design director Steffen Koehl told Wheels that although the vehicles were far from volume showroom furniture, they could be built in limited numbers. That, or have elements of their design built into other vehicles.

“These things are dreams and visions and they work for us here in the show, but these things always cross over internally,” he said. “I can tell you that our board members were strongly supportive of this project, so whatever happens is not without a reason and the future is very open for our brand.”

Koehl said a number of wealthy and high-profile Pebble Beach attendees had approached Maybach and offered almost unlimited sums of money for a version of the concept pair - a request that the company could agree to.

“We have a lot of guys at Pebble Beach; Schwarzenegger, 50 Cent, and a lot of guys that came up and offered deposits. If we bring something out it would be a very short number.”

But while a one-off or micro-production run is still a possibility, Koehl said the company did not need a production Maybach 6 to bolster sales and that the company was enjoying its greatest popularity to date.

“What we found out is that, beside enthusiasm and pure design, we have never been as successful as we are with Mercedes-Maybach. People understand the brand as a very strong, leading brand and the customer worldwide has no problem that Maybach is related to Mercedes.

“We sell more than ever Mercedes-Maybach products so there is no need in an economical discussion to do something totally out there. It looks fantastic and like nothing ever before but with these products and show cars we want to keep Mercedes-Maybach as the ultimate luxury brand within Daimler.”

Even if the huge coupe and convertible remain firmly in the show car realm, Koehl said design elements and Maybach 6 details would filter into mainstream production models, similar to how many concept cars impart some of their styling into road-going versions.

“You see a lot of show cars which do not exactly come like that, but you can recognise after that the guys tested something and you find it later in the production cars. That always happens because these things are inspiration for our engineers, for our designers, for the board to say ‘Hey, this looks great, why don’t we have it in production?’

“Last year we had a red one which was a coupe, and now we bring it again so something is everlasting.”

But not all concepts are equal, Koehl said. Daimler’s design studies are categorised as “vision” cars such as the imaginative Maybach 6, or “pre-positioning” cars that are much closer to a possible (often imminent) production version.

Mercedes-AMG’s GT Concept is one such example, said Koehl, and fans of the four-door GT from Affalterbach can expect the production version to strongly resemble the concept that rolled out at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

“The AMG GT Concept sedan is a pre-positioning show car because the product will very much look like that,” Koehl said.