New Mercedes S-Class Leaks Out, Showing Wildly Modern Interior [Video]

From Car and Driver

• Photos of the next-generation Mercedes-Benz S-class have leaked on Instagram.

• The new flagship sedan appears to have a rather evolutionary exterior design but a revolutionary and modern-looking interior layout.

• Mercedes says that the new S-class will make its official debut sometime later this year.

UPDATE 5/14/20: A new video posted on Instagram shows the S-class's interior with the displays screens on. The huge central display touchscreen combines with a digital gauge cluster in front of the driver to make for an extremely screen-forward cockpit.

The next Mercedes-Benz S-class will look familiarly posh on the outside but shockingly modern on the inside, if these leaked photos are any indication. Photos circulating on Instagram show the new flagship sedan inside and out, confirming what we saw before in earlier spy photos: a dashboard layout unlike anything we've seen in a Mercedes-Benz that's dominated by a massive touchscreen display that takes up nearly the entire center stack.

This S-class also appears to have the same new Supersport steering-wheel design from the updated E-class, which has touch-sensitive capability that tells the car's driver-assistance systems if the driver's hands are on the wheel. Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius has said before that the S-class would offer Level 3 autonomy, meaning it can operate and monitor the environment without intervention from a driver under most conditions.

Expected to carry the codename W223, the next-generation S-class's exterior design is less surprising, as it mostly follows the same design trends seen on Benz's smaller sedans. We expect it to be powered by a range of inline-six and V-8 engines, some with hybrid assistance; an all-electric version called EQS is also on the way. It will certainly get the AMG high-performance treatment, too, following the debut of the standard models.

A Mercedes spokesperson told C/D that the new S-class will debut sometime later this year. That means the S-class is likely to arrive in the U.S. market sometime in 2021, either as a 2021 or 2022 model.

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