Mercedes-benz unveils vision iconic car in shanghai
Mercedes-Benz introduces Vision Iconic, a car with Art Deco designs and a reinterpreted radiator grille featuring lighting animations. Unveiled in Shanghai on October 14th, 2025, the automobile draws design cues from the Mercedes-Benz Typ 540K Autobahn-Kurier, the company’s 1938 roadster with an elongated front, ballooned wheel arches, large round headlights, and a sloping-down roof to the rear. For the recent Vision Iconic, Mercedes-Benz brings over the style of Art Deco.
In an interview with designboom in Shanghai, Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, tells us that Art Deco has always been an inspiration to him. ‘Even when I started being the Chief Designer in 2008, the generation of cars we produced carried that kind of dropping shapes and lines, which is an Art Deco signature. We always referred back to that because for me, it is classic luxury and it is part of the company’s DNA. Now, it is part of the Vision Iconic car,’ he says. At the premiere of the vehicle, MAD’s Ma Yansong was present and took the stage with the Chief Design Officer when the red veil was lifted off. After the event, the two visited the nearby design exhibition that showcases MAD’s works on the Lucas Museum and the Shenzen Bay.
all images courtesy of Mercedes-Benz, unless stated otherwise
Art deco designs and marquetry decorate the interiors
Stepping inside the car, the centerpiece is the instrument panel shaped as a floating glass, named Zeppelin. Its design evokes the carefully placed lines and geometric shapes that define the decorative, artistic style. As soon as the door opens, the instrument clutter comes to life with an analog animation inspired by chronographs. There’s a pillar-to-pillar screen on view, and at the center of it lies a clock shaped like the company’s iconic star logo, acting as an AI companion. Behind the Zeppelin, a decorative surface unfolds with a pearl look.
This marquetry shows up around the door panels, encircling the polished brass door handles in silver and gold tones before reaching the star patterns that frame the rear seat. The seats at the front come through as a single bench in deep blue velvet. In front of the driver, the four-spoke steering wheel carries the Mercedes-Benz logo for the Vision Iconic, floating inside a glass sphere and clasped by the spokes as if it were a piece of jewelry. The interior floors are designed with straw marquetry, a decorative technique dating back to the 17th century and revived in the 1920s. The design team handcrafts the finish in a fan-shaped Art Deco motif, a continuation of the artistic style.
the car draws design cues from the Mercedes-Benz 1938 roadster with an elongated front
Reimagined Animated radiator grille with smoked-glass design
For the Vision Iconic car, Mercedes-Benz pays homage to the upright grilles of the company’s iconic models, such as the W 108, the W 111 and the Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman. For the recent model, the grille, which was first introduced in the all-new electric GLC vehicle in September 2025, comes with an animated system, a wide chromed frame, a smoked-glass lattice structure and integrated contour lighting. The deep black high-gloss paint finish of the vehicle underlines the sculptural exterior design of the show car, more so the illuminating upright star on top of the reinterpreted radiator grille, shining brightly as a signal to the upcoming new generation of Mercedes-Benz cars.
With designboom, Gorden Wagener shares that the company constantly searches for what can make its design iconic ‘to let us stand out from the sea of sameness of other cars and to make us a leading iconic brand. When you see the radiator grille, it’s almost like a piece of art with 100 years of tradition. We didn’t just take an old grille and put it in a new car. We made it into a high-tech piece, an LED wall that you can animate with pixels that used to be square intakes for air. Now it’s square LEDs, and with that, we bring it into a new generation and we put it into an aluminum plate that gives that richness and appearance when we see it outside in the sunlight,’ he says.
Mercedes-Benz pays homage to the upright grilles of its iconic models, such as the W 108 and the W 111
The group’s Chief Design Officer guides us through the design elements within the Mercedes-Benz Vision Iconic car. He reveals that all of the company’s new generation of vehicles have a complete virtual instrument panel. ‘We replaced the hardware design now with software design with our new MBX system. This car here, the Vision Iconic, is actually a kind of antithesis of that, saying, “With increasing digitalization, people want more analog solutions again.” In the probably not far distant future, given the use of large language models, I think voice operation will become predominant at one point, so you touch less and you speak more, like we do as humans,’ he shares.
In the recent car, Gorden Wagener explains that the team puts emphasis on haptics and was inspired by the instrument panels of the automotive designs in the 1930s, ‘being that glass kind of thing with the two beautiful pieces inside. Then, there’s also the Art Deco-inspired seat, which feels like a sofa in a living room. We say the car of the future is not the smartphone on wheels, but it’s maybe the smart home on wheels, and the cozy sofa is where you can snuggle in while the car is driving autonomously. This is the idea behind that. Other than that, we of course take materials like mother-of-pearl and gold to make it look opulent,’ he adds.
the grille comes with a wide chromed frame, a smoked-glass lattice structure and integrated contour lighting
A slew of other innovations defines the recent Mercedes-Benz Vision Iconic, including its solar coating, which is a paint similar to a paste that turns the surface of any electric vehicle into a photovoltaic-active exterior. This means that the entire outside of the vehicle can harness solar power, depending on the location and local conditions, and recharge itself to add additional driving range. The company says that the solar cells in the coating have a high efficiency of 20 percent and generate energy continuously, even when the vehicle is switched off and that the paint doesn’t have any rare earths or silicone and can be recycled easily.
Together with the show car, Mercedes-Benz also presents a capsule collection consisting of six outfits. Here, the Art Deco approach in the Vision Iconic continues, with dark blue nuances and silver-gold accents highlighting the clothing designs. Each piece comes from fabrics that were typically used between the 1920s and 1930s, and the collection is an homage to Shanghai Fashion Week, which takes place at the same time as the unveiling of the Vision Iconic car. Before our interview with Gorden Wagener wraps up, he explores the future of Mercedes-Benz’s automotive designs following the Vision Iconic car. ‘This car here gives a glimpse into the future. For me as a designer, the most important part is to create an identity that has iconic potential because that differentiates good design from mainstream design and lets you stick out of the sea of sameness. This brand has all the potential for that. This car embodies that. In whatever we do, we follow that path,’ he concludes.
rear view of the show car
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