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Project Maybach is an absurd, awesome off-road electric coupe

Mercedes has created some mighty unusual concepts for the Maybach luxury brand. The Exelero high-speed test car and the Ultimate Luxury SUV sedan come to mind. But the Project Maybach, designed in collaboration with late fashion designer Virgil Abloh, may be the wildest yet, being an electric off-road coupe. It's not just the fact it's a two-door off-road coupe. It's the fact that it's a nearly 20-foot-long two-door off-road coupe. And it has very traditional proportions and lines, with a gargantuan front end, and a somewhat less gargantuan rear end. It's squared-off, but in a more elegant, midcentury luxury car way than say, a Hummer. And of course, it has a huge chrome grille and highly embellished taillights, complete with Maybach logos. And yet, this old-school coupe sits high off the ground. It rolls on small, steel-style wheels with chunky tires. It even has skid plates, bolt-on fender flares, rock rails and a roll cage with a roof basket. It's all painted in a matte tan paint that makes it look like a desert-ready expedition vehicle. It's even arguably practical for expedition work. The somewhat spartan-looking interior has tan leather seats that recline fully flat for sleeping. Being an electric car with long areas unoccupied by people, plus that roof basket, it likely has loads of cargo space. On the hood are solar panels that might provide a bit of range, but would at least be handy for recouping some power for accessories. The interior seems to have additional storage bins and tools stowed in special compartments around the cabin. As for the actual performance and range, well, Mercedes has nothing specific. That's not entirely surprising, since this seems to be solely a design exercise. As such, don't expect to see a production model anytime soon. Then again, off-road luxury vehicles are certainly popular. Maybe Mercedes would consider it if there were enough seriously wealthy customers expressing interest. Related video:

Mercedes rules out hybrid supercar, promises SLS successor

The recent Geneva Motor Show was a festival of hypercars, with the presence of not one, but three over-the-top debuts: the Lamborghini Veneno, McLaren P1 and Ferrari LeFerrari. The latter two have hitched their carbon fiber bumpers to the electrification bandwagon by using hybrid-electric powertrains not entirely unlike the propulsion systems we've come to know in cars like the Toyota Prius and Chevrolet Volt. Does that mean the flow of electrons up the four-wheeled food chain will eventually consume our hallowed supercars? Not if AMG has anything to say about it.
AMG Director of Vehicle Development Tobias Moers recently confirmed that not only will there be a successor to the Mercedes-Benz performance division's SLS AMG, he notes that its internal combustion engine will most definitely not be sharing living quarters with an electric drivetrain. Instead, AMG plans to focus on further pushing the power and efficiency envelope of the internal combustion engine and advancing the use of lightweight materials to achieve their goals. The first example of this effort can be seen in the new SLS AMG Black Series that incorporates many weight-saving techniques to shed some 154 pounds from the SLS AMG GT (above), which itself is lighter than the standard SLS AMG.
Furthermore, Moers remarks that his company is happy to leave the hypercar segment to companies like Ferrari and McLaren. He admits that, "Ferrari in the hyper-car segment is still a different brand than AMG. We have to be honest..." So rather than taking the SLS further upmarket to do battle with bulls and stallions, Moers hinted that the next-generation SLS may be joined by another performance model that fits neatly between itself and the C63 AMG.

13-year-old boy swipes dad's Mercedes, drives across Europe

After an argument with his adoptive parents that resulted in them taking away his mobile phone, an angry 13-year-old boy ran away from his home in Italy and headed straight to Poland to meet his biological sister. But instead of taking the train or hitching a ride, like most on the run, the young man (an accomplished go-kart racer and car enthusiast) grabbed the keys to his father's Mercedes-Benz and jumped behind the wheel for an impromptu road trip.
With less than 200 euros (about $270) in his wallet and a passport in his pocket, the youngster managed to put more than 500 miles between himself and his distraught parents, crossing two international borders in the process, before German police nabbed him just shy of the Polish border. According to reports, the vehicle was tracked - it wasn't his driving that alerted authorities to his location.
Reunited with his mother and father, who traveled to Germany to retrieve both their son and the vehicle, the young man apologized and acknowledged his error. As a result of his actions, social workers will increase checks on the family and we can be sure his parents are now hiding the keys.