The 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class range is going to look a little different from the current generation, not least for the enormous screen which the Stuttgart brand has just revealed will be seen spanning the dash.
Dubbed Hyperscreen and already seen in electric car models like the Mercedes-Benz EQS and EQE, the new display is 5G-enabled as standard, comes with app functionality like a smartphone, and will even allow for social media content creation and interactivity for the driver.
Mercedes is even aiming to have AI help control the E-Class’ functionality in the coming years after the model’s European launch around the middle of this year.
Not only will the screen more closely mimic a smartphone in terms of functionality, but Mercedes will also implement its own operating system, called MB.OS, to eventually replace the current third-generation MBUX.
The E-Class’ MBUX is just a precursor to MB.OS, but it’s already set to feature an app suite including Zoom and Webex for conferencing and workflow collaboration, and internet browser Vivaldi.
Interestingly, the E-Class will also feature the once-popular mobile game Angry Birds, as well as the currently popular social media platform TikTok.
It even has a camera for the driver to “participate in online video conferences… and take personal photos and videos”.
“At a later date, camera functions will also be possible for the front passenger.”
The system will also feature a functionality that enables music to influence the cabin’s ambient lighting, in which “for example, fast sequences of beats can cause rapid light changes, while flowing rhythms can create softly merging lighting moods”.
However, Mercedes is quick to add a caveat to answer the question you’re probably already asking: surely that’s illegal?
“New technologies must always meet the legal requirements of the different markets, and must therefore be adapted accordingly,” Mercedes says.
“We are currently looking into the approval situation in this respect.”
But the screen isn’t the only change coming to the E-Class, with reports from M-B insiders saying the brand is likely to kill off many of its less popular body styles for some model lines.
It’s understood that for the E-Class, this means no more wagons or coupes, based on word from the likes of Euro-based Car and Driver. A ‘senior member’ of the brand’s planning and strategy team told the outlet a streamlined focus on key models will help boost profit margins and move the brand ‘further upmarket’.
“At the end of the day, we simply don’t need estate cars [wagons] or underperforming two-door offerings to boost volumes,” they said.
“The most essential elements of sustainable contemporary luxury cars are space and time… That’s our number one priority, not another fancy body style, a model that only works in Europe, or one last stab at a dying segment.”
There’s no need to guess whether the next AMG versions of the E-Class will be as they are currently, however, with Stuttgart already having confirmed the final editions of its V8-powered C- and E-Classes.
Mercedes-AMG is offering the Final Edition treatment to its C63 S Cabriolet and Coupe, plus the E63 S Sedan in the form of a package, and it’s reasonable to expect the next-gen E63 to take a similar downsized plug-in hybrid route as the new C63 E Performance.
Keyword: Too much tech? 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 'Hyperscreen' interior revealed for next-gen BMW 5 Series rival