Mercedes-Benz is reviving the Maybach name for a second time to challenge Rolls-Royce and Bentley for the world’s wealthiest auto buyers.
Maybach, a 1930s-era marque, will become the ultraluxury sub-brand of Mercedes, offering more spacious and opulent adaptations of cars like the S-Class sedan. The first vehicle in the rollout will debut later this month.
“The customer gets the best our house has to offer,” Ola Kaellenius, sales chief of the Daimler AG unit, said at an event Saturday near Stuttgart, Germany. “I’m confident and optimistic that Maybach will be successful on the market.”
Mercedes is reversing a 2011 decision to end production of Maybach as part of a broader makeover of branding at Mercedes. Under a plan to rename its sport-utility vehicles, roadsters and coupes starting next year, the M-Class SUV becomes the GLE.
“They are cleaning up past mistakes that they allowed to produce chaos,” said Juergen Pieper, a Frankfurt-based analyst with Bankhaus Metzler. “It’s a good and logical move.”
With Mercedes seeking to leap from third to No. 1 in global luxury-car sales, the moves play catchup to rivals. BMW AG and Volkswagen AG are already active in the ultraluxury segment with the Rolls-Royce and Bentley brands, respectively, while BMW and Volkswagen’s Audi also clearly distinguish SUVs from their mainline sedans and wagons.
A Daimler AG Maybach 62 S luxury vehicle sits on display during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, on Jan. 12, 2011. (Bloomberg)
Mercedes SUV names will start with GL, according to the new policy. The existing top-of-the-line GL becomes the GLS to associate it with the S-Class, and the compact GLK becomes the GLC to align it with the C-Class. By killing the M-Class name, Daimler ends an uncomfortable association with BMW’s M performance unit. The $115,400 G-Class offroader remains unchanged.
Names of four-door coupes will start with CL, and roadsters will begin with SL. Mercedes will also introduce lowercase letters for different drivetrains: “d” for diesel, “e” for electric and “h” for hybrid.
“It’s time to bring order to it,” Kaellenius said. “We’re bringing in a clear logic that everybody understands.”
Maybach, which was originally revived in 2002, will become the luxury equivalent of the AMG performance unit, which offers souped-up versions of cars including the A-Class hatchback. The first model will be the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, which will be premiered in Los Angeles and Guangzhou, China.
The sub-brand will be distinguished from standard editions by having more space, special seats, “lavishly designed” interiors and more customization options, Mercedes said.
As an independent brand, Maybach ― named after an early collaborator of Gottlieb Daimler, one of the automaker’s founders ― failed to mount a serious challenge for ultraluxury buyers because it lacked global name recognition. Deliveries peaked at about 600 cars in 2003, while Rolls-Royce and Bentley have gone on to post sales records.
The new Maybach models will be cheaper than the previous vehicles, which were individually built and cost more than $350,000, Mercedes said, without providing specifics. The company expects China to be the most important market, followed by the U.S., Germany, Russia and the Middle East.
“It’s a much better fit to reactivate Maybach as a sub-brand of the S-Class than to try to artificially build up a brand history,” said Daniel Schwarz, an analyst with Commerzbank in Frankfurt. “The S-Class is already a strong brand and can be leveraged even further.” (Bloomberg)
