The latest Brussels Motor Show proved to be a treasure trove for us car enthusiasts. At the impressive wonderful Mercedes stand on the show we met on the press day with Robert Lesnik, Director of Exterior Design. In front of the iconic and already legendary Concept AMG XX, he presented styling examples of what Mercedes believes stands for the brand.

He started off with this AMG XX, and commented that this car embodies a rare combination a very aggressive sporting front end, the side view with the timeless proportion of the long bonnet, a very round shaped rear end and an amazing interior. He also showed the legendary Autobahnkourier, and he also focused on the grille of the 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Renncoupé, being so iconic and a typical design hallmark over the years for the sport coupés and cabrios of the brand. He also commented further on the Concept AMG that this car is the harbinger of what is to come for the series version of this AMG Electric sports coupé.

Robert Lesnik commented further: “For the new generation we were inspired by our past cars and design heritage, which doesn’t mean that we are doing retro design. You can see it on the radiator grille of the new GLC Electric SUV, with just three horizontal bars illuminated, it is a modern interpretation of a classic design icon.”

Beauty and attraction…

“There are two elements, beauty and attraction, which are the goals when we design a Mercedes”, Robert continued. Something that attracts the customer and what he perceives as beautiful.”

“Obviously, this goes for both the exterior AND the interior. There must be a certain power. I would say the sweet spot for every Mercedes is the three-quarter rear end perspective, where you really see the shoulder, and you see also a very iconic graphic with two roundish rear lights, with three lights for the AMG versions.”

We asked also about the interior, although he is responsible for exterior design, but nevertheless…

“For the interior,” he continued, “there is always a combination of the digital and the analog. For the first time, we have a hyperscreen, made of three screens being seamlessly positioned together. Also when the instruments and screen is shut off, it is not uniformly black, the air vent openings are still illuminated, the touch fields and items on the screen are also still visible, the inside door handles have a metallic coating, silver shadow galvanized so to say, these elements were there earlier, and will stay also in the future. I always say, Mercedes has always a chromium strip more.” We could only agree…

Focusing further on the front of the car, Robert stressed that it is still somewhat higher, which results in a spacious frunk. We will also strive to have clean lines.

We asked Robert also when looking back at the elegantly styled cars for the hand of Paul Bracque, the cars were lean, low, with excellent all round visibility. Do we see these styling elements back in the Mercedes cars of today and the future?

“Indeed, cars were (much)smaller, but now cars are electric, and they need more volume because of the batteries. Cars therefore need to be higher and this also calls for bigger wheels. This means also that cars are wider and have longer wheelbases. So cars are bigger and later hopefully will get smaller again. But cars as elegant as the Pagode will never appear again because of the safety regulations… But for the next five years, our horizon is set, we have a good idea what our design strategy will be.”

We thanked Robert for the interview and show you here some photos.

In a further episode we will have a further interview with Oliver Löcher, Vice President Vehicle Engineering and Overall Vehicle Functions Mercedes-Benz Cars.

Hans Knol ten Bensel