We have driven Mercedes-Benz’s car of the future

PSSSST! Want to know what the future looks like? Well, we’ve driven it, in the form of Mercedes’ stunning Vision EQS Concept EV.

Yep, we blagged our way into the driver’s seat of Stuttgart’s multimillion dollar dream machine for a first-hand glimpse of what lies ahead. And it’s a future that may not be as far off as you’d imagine, with Holger Hutzenlaub, of Benz’s advanced design team, revealing: “We wanted to focus on what a future electric S-Class could look like.”

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Andrew Chesterton’s unique cover story is just one of the many fascinating features, drives and columns we’ve crammed into the Wheels Future Issue, which is out now, as we hurtle towards 2020.

But don’t go thinking petrol power has disappeared in a puff of smoke. We hit the streets in the fearsome new mid-engined Corvette C8. It’s just one of the drives we’ve lined up for you this month, including the Mercedes-Benz GLC, Audi’s sparkling A1, the BMW X6 M50i, Hyundai’s three Ioniq electrics and the updated Japanese stayer, the Mitsubishi ASX.

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Would you like some tyre frying with that? Try BMW’s M2 CS, Bavaria’s barnstorming swan song to the F22 2 Series Coupe that promises to beat a Porsche Cayman GT4 in the 0-100km/h sprint.

But if petrol truly represents the past and electric’s the future, what’s best right now? We pack Deputy Editor Andy Enright off to Targa High Country with a pair of squabbling cats - Jaguar’s fossil-burning F-Type SVR V8 and its battery-powered sibling,the I-Pace. We told him not to come back without an answer, and he didn’t disappoint.

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Does it need to be noisy to be fun? We take Tesla’s Model 3 for a fair old fang to see just how we feel about that.

Enright also rates progress on five core technologies the soothsayers swore would be just part of the furniture by 2020, and our resident racing tragic Cameron Kirby brings you the lowdown on motorsport heading into the new decade.

We go behind closed doors at Rimac’s Croatian HQ and find there’s a lot more to this EV outlier than just its awesome hypercars.

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Check out Porsche’s plans for a hybrid successor to its fabled 918 Spyder - with a V6 from the car maker’s aborted F1 engine program tipped to power the mean machine.

Electric SUVs are also on the move – we take a look at some of the latest ones revealed, including Ford’s first full EV, the Mustang Mach-E.

We go along for the ride as Citroen CEO Linda Jackson spruiks the maker’s credentials down under, and there’s another French connection as Peugeot’s 508 liftback takes on the Volvo S60 and the Kia Stinger in our latest comparo.

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Not quite ready for the future? Look back at the past with our Modern Classic, Subaru’s venerable WRC slayer the WRX 22B, and our Retro car, the 1959 Austin-Healey 3000. And see what cars Alpina boss Andreas Bovensiepen fancies for his dream garage - and not one of them an Alpina.

Get it while it’s hot – on sale now!