Where Elbe meets electric | Mercedes-Benz S 450e

Hamburg’s urban reinvention isn’t built on levelling the derelict, industrial relics of its maritime past, or deporting its dockside history to sterile museum corridors and glossy coffee table books. Instead, the city has chosen to romance the past, weaving its gritty history with a new era of opulent design. While the look and feel still fans centuries-old charm, the historical texture has been gracefully transformed into expressions of modern and futuristic architecture. The warehouses and jetties now wear a different purpose; where waterfronts once bustled with the chaos of sailors and stevedores, longshoremen and labourers, urban chic rewrites the passage of time, punctuated by office complexes, residential buildings, elegant waterfront cafes and walking paths that criss cross a record number of bridges, all set to outnumber those in Venice.

The futuristic glass building of the Elphi Concert Hall sits next to the world’s largest complex of contiguous warehouses (a UNESCO World Heritage site), making a clear case for why so many cities consider Hamburg a model for redevelopment of an old port city. After all, true luxury isn’t about erasing history, but embodying it.

Much like the city, the car I am driving from Hamburg also embodies its past; although transformed, not so much from the outside but from the inside out. While the car has 2,500 new parts and the engineers at Mercedes-Benz claim that the car is over 50 per cent new, the structure and the body shell is the same as before albeit with some impressive cosmetic and functional upgrades that change the look of the car. The starry grille is a take from the new BEVs, while the signature in the tail lamps, echoed in the headlamps, is a take on the very successful and well-appreciated tail lamps of the E-class. Wheel designs have changed as well, while the front fenders on either side now get a new camera that helps with advanced assistance features.

We start the drive from another of Hamburg’s landmarks, The Fontenay. This lakeside hotel, a stone’s throw from the heart of the city is spectacular, not only in the way it looks but also for the spectacular views of the sailing regatta taking place on the serene waters of the Alster lake, even while enjoying a gourmet spread at the two Michelin-starred restaurant on top of the hotel.

My drive takes me to the German Riviera, north of Hamburg to another exquisite property, the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort, which boasts a 3km-long Baltic sea-front, and a long history of high profile guests and events that includes the G7 foreign ministers meeting.

I cruise out of the city of Hamburg silently, as the car I am driving—and that Mercedes is launching in India—is a plug-in hybrid with an over 100km electric range. It’s not long before I’m hurtling down the famed German autobahn, giving the S450e free rein and clocking over 200kmph. Cocooned in luxury with the suspension adjusting itself at every micro second to the imperfections of the road, I enjoy the complete transformation of the software backbone of the car (autonomous driving capability added but not yet enabled) and its outward manifestations available through the new screen. This 4th generation MBUX hyper-screen has three screens instead of the earlier two. The 12.3in passenger screen and the 14.4in central screen are behind the same glass panel while the instrument panel is on another 12.3in floating display. With such advanced computing, the 4th gen MBUX now provides the latest version of ChatGPT, Microsoft Bing and Google Gemini built in while the on-board navigation run off Google Maps.

The 450e that is launched in India features a total output of 435bhp and peak torque of 680Nm. It will get up to 100kmph in 5.7 seconds and now features a 27.8kWh battery pack that can drive the car up to 115km as per WLTP and to a top speed of 140kmph on electricity alone.

It is such irony that while I am driving along the wind-swept beaches of the German Riviera that is meant to transport you back to the future, I am doing it in a car that is future proof and fitted with cutting edge technology. Mercedes seems to have added intelligence to every core of the car and while the car is not revolutionary, it is better than before in every aspect. Launching with the plug-in hybrid is another master stroke for India because it will differentiate the car and keep it in that exalted, most coveted, space that it has made its own over the years. The car is priced at2.2 crore for the launch edition that is a CBU (Completely Built Unit) and while booking are open, deliveries are expected to start around Diwali, promising a big bang release.