2020 W223 Mercedes S-Class Makes "Chrismas Testing" a Thing

S-Class sales have been holding steady at around 15,000 units a year in Europe, but that's half of what they in the glory days of the W220. The segment as a whole has been moving away from luxury limos and into imposing SUVs, the new benchmark for successful businesspeople.

Mercedes themselves were among the first to offer an XXL 4x4, the GL (later became the GLS). But the company still likes to put all its novel ideas into this classic sedan body. The W223 generation has been testing for about a year now and looks to be on track for a late 2019 or early 2020 debut.

This particular prototype has been spied in Stuttgart, the hometown of the automaker, but earlier this week, we captured a similar one in Santa's backyard, Scandinavia. The design is obscured by camouflage but still feels like an S-Class.

For example, the roof and side windows have a clean curved line that defines them. But the fact that the door handles are being camouflaged tells us Mercedes is looking to install pop-out systems like Tesla or Jaguar. Where the W222 had bulging headlights and taillights, this W223 has narrow ones at both ends. Revisions are also being made to the shape of the grille.

Brand new tech is being developed too, though most is cloak-and-dagger stuff at the moment. For example, we've seen one prototype with just one tablet-like screen in the middle, like a Tesla. Also, new engines are being developed... we just don't know what they are. One of our readers recently asked us what they'll use in the Maybach models if the V12s are being killed off, and we honestly don't know, though a hybrid V8 seems like the obvious answer.