Since the dawn of infotainment, memes have theorized when car dashboards would be entirely screen. Obviously, the Tesla Model S’ portrait-style setup accelerated things, but the arms race really took off over the past five years or so. Who will win the race? Well, here’s the interior of the incoming electric Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and not only does it look like a McDonald’s drive-thru menu, the old Mercedes-Benz 190E probably wouldn’t even recognize this thing as a descendent.
Like in the new electric GLC, everything is computer. On top trims, a massive 39.1-inch screen runs all the way from the driver’s side air vent to the passenger-side air vent. That’s a larger screen than the TV I play video games on, although it definitely isn’t a standard aspect ratio. The good news is that the brightness of the instrument cluster, center section, and passenger section can all be adjusted separately, so your retinas probably won’t get seared if your passenger decides to watch a YouTube video. The bad news is that if the screen malfunctions, there goes everything from your HVAC controls to your gauges.
If you’ve noticed a bump atop the screen, it’s there for a slightly dystopian reason. This selfie camera is also capable of being a webcam for Zoom calls when the car is parked. Does anyone driving a C-Class need to maximize shareholder value that much? Still, so long as you say no to video conference calls, the ability to snap a quick selfie with passengers sounds like a fun way to make memories, even if your phone could do it anyway.
Mind you, not every new C-Class will get the enormous screen, because most models will be equipped with lots of smaller screens. One for the gauges, one for the infotainment, and even one for the passenger, all separated by black borders. This so-called Superscreen is undoubtedly cheaper to manufacture than the large single-piece unit, but I fear how cheap all those borders will look.
Are there any physical controls? Only a modicum. A small bank on the console houses a volume scroll wheel, a drive mode selector, a hazard warning lamp switch, and three other buttons. None of which appear to be climate-related. Instead, all your climate controls and heated seats are in the screen. Mercedes-Benz still states that with this interior setup, “Analogue and digital aesthetics merge seamlessly.” Is an analog aesthetic in the room with us?
Mind you, these photos of the screen setup give us a huge clue as to the capability of the new electric C-Class. The digital dashboard displays 684 kilometers, or 425 miles of range at 90 percent state-of-charge. That should equate to 472 miles or 760 kilometers of range on a full charge, a considerable figure for a compact electric sedan. Granted, it’s possible this may align with WLTP range ratings rather than the more realistic EPA range ratings, but nothing in this class really comes close to that sort of mileage.
While that information’s likely an easter egg, Mercedes-Benz has announced a variety of available features. You’ll be able to get the new C-Class with a vegan-certified interior that replaces cow hides with some sort of plastic, ventilated seats and a backrest massage will be an option, there’s an available illuminated moonroof with oodles of etched three-pointed stars of questionable taste, and you’ll be able to choose several types of leather and wood.
That last bit is important because while a huge screen might impress Best Buy enthusiasts, there are still a lot of people who expect a luxury car to be made of nicer stuff than a regular car. Softer leathers, slabs of real veneer, nicer headlining, real metallic components. Considering visual technology ages with time rather than use, the long-term prospects of the new C-Class are looking interesting. It might make a splash now, but how will it lease in five years’ time when competitors have crisper screens with deeper blacks and cleaner user experience design?
Regardless, we can expect to see a whole lot more of the new electric Mercedes-Benz C-Class on April 20, when the full thing’s unveiled in Korea. If the GLC’s any indication, expect an enormous grille and questionable star-shaped elements in the lights. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be looking at W204 C 63 AMGs.
Top graphic images: Mercedes-Benz; McDonalds
I have a hard time believing that this is a selling point for anyone.
You get a screen, you get a screen. We all get screens.
God awful. I remember as a kid when I used to read Road&Track and similar rags, they used to tout “Teutonic simplicity” when reviewing Mercedes and BMWs interiors and cockpits. That is a distant memory.
The Top Shot is gold. I laughed my ass off as soon as I saw it on the home page.
Is there anyone who really thinks, that this is “Das Beste oder nichts?”
I don’t think so. It literally looks like a wet dream, a Pimp my Ride fand had. That’s it. Far from “Das Beste”, more close to “nichts”.
MB has lost the plot so much.
I love how you can see tremendous backlight bleed and uniformity issues in their own press photos. It makes these giant screens look so …low end. Why can’t we get proper high contrast LCDs or OLED in cars yet?
*throws the renewal to the MBCA in the trash*
I like tech, I like having screens, not necessarily this huge, but whatever. My BMW has screens and they are fine. But, it also has buttons. Many buttons. Real buttons. It doesn’t force you to use the screens as controls.
The biggest sin here is the near total lack of buttons.
This is the same company that gave us the interior of the 1968 280se. Let that sink in.
I thought the C stood for cheaper.
Long live analog.
I hate to be a classist snob but the C and E classes have no place in the MB lineup.
It’s not to say MB has to be an expensive luxury make–they made millions of non-luxurious no-frills big diesel family haulers. But the C and E class are tacky and cheap like an entry-level Vuitton bag emblazoned with logos and gaudy fake goldplated buckles and zippers.
I get that buying your first Mercedes, even an entry-level one, can be felt as a big personal achievement, and I celebrate those. But you can get much better and classier cars for the same money.
They make it look like a space ship.. then they give it the most wimpy, high pitched running sound… PLEASE – make the EV sound like a 100-ton pyramid floating above the ground! Give me deep, bass-heavy running sound. This car is a complete failure if it doesn’t sound like alien oppressors landing on earth with all that tech.
At least give us the option to sound like George Jetson’s ride.
Mercedes needs to bring back the R-class. There. I said it.
Mercedes-Benz didn’t know how to market R-Class, let alone describe what it is.
Interestingly, R-Class was so popular in China that Mercedes-Benz transferred the production to AMI to continue building R-Class for a few more years, specifically for Chinese market.
Cool, I love glare! And who’s most likely to buy MB cars, but people who are older and have more money, people for whom glare is a bigger issue.
Well, how far we’ve come from the W126 500SEC that I spent so much time riding in as a kid (and eventually having my dad show me how to wrench on).
In that car, even the tiny cupholders (which could fit an espresso cup, at most) were considered a potential distraction, so the engineers stashed them in the glovebox door. They couldn’t really be used for anything unless parked, which perplexed me at the time — but that was, of course, the whole point.
As time went on, it felt like the old engineering-led mindset (with an emphasis on practicality and safety) still survived in how their products were designed to be used, at least, even as unending corporate chaos and a quagmire of gnarly, mind-boggling quality issues eroded it elsewhere. Even on a later car, when I wondered why the CD changer was in the trunk, it only took remembering those cupholders for the design to make sense.
I think their in-car UX peaked back in the COMAND days (before MBUX), particularly as snappier and more refined versions of that system (known as NTG 4.5/4.7/5) showed up in the 2010s. Those all had the physical control knob and central screen (not a touchscreen), and continued building upon the UX that originated with the W221 S-Class (NTG 3).
In that generation of the S-Class, the central controller knob (which was made of real metal, not plastic) also gave haptic feedback, meaning that it would physically stop turning when the user scrolled to the end of a list on the screen. In practice, that meant menus could often be navigated by feel alone — in other words, all “muscle memory” instead of looking at the screen.
That’s another example of how nuanced and thoughtful engineering can help promote focus instead of creating new distractions by design. It’s a mindset that seems tragically absent in this era of MBUX, EDM-inspired interior lighting, and the exercise in absurdity that is the Hyperscreen.
(I didn’t set out for my first comment to end up being a long-winded eulogy for Mercedes, but here we are.)
Thank you for your comment.
Not a fan of touch screens but this is this is so much better than the iPad on the dash look of the SL and teslas.
Some time in the near future:
“Hey C-Class, let me get ….uuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…two number 9s, a number 6 with extra dip, a number 7, two number 45s, one with cheese, and a large soda”
Response: “Now playing Who Let the Dogs Out by the Baja Men, on repeat.”
The GLE/GLS showed off the three-screen “Superscreen” in press pics, and yep, it looks stupid and ugly.
This won’t age well.
Considering my 3 year old Dodge has been at the dealer for the past month getting a much smaller screen replaced, yeah, I don’t have high hopes. And I don’t think there’s much difference in durability/reliability between modern Mercedes-Benz electronics and Stellantis electronics
We added a big screen!
-Won’t the drivers get disctracted?
We’ll add more driver assists so they can pay less attention to the road!
-Great, that means more screens!
Awesome, we’ll add more driver assisstance!
-BIGGER SCREENS!
This ouroboros of suck that car design has been in for the last decade or so has been amazingly terrible
I’ve never found a screen in a car to be distracting. It’s not like you watch movies on them. It’s not like a screen is a “gee whiz wouldya look at that” thing anymore, even to small children. How would they be distracting?
Congrats, you just described the entire car, nay the entire brand.
Wow, it sucks!
MB really has lost the plot. Big screens aren’t luxury; they’re the opposite. I mentioned the other day that I had a ’26 C300 as a loaner and I found it tacky. I’ll take my ’19 with its “tablet tacked to the dash” over this garbage every time.
Living the dream in my 2010 with double row timing chain under-stressed V6 , made in Germany , last year before start/stop. A return to the old classic build and style they were respected for. I avoid the years that got Chrysler stink on them, and won’t own a “connected” car. Clouds are for shouting at, not connecting to.
Cant wait for Mercedes-Benz to sent out a letter like BYD about the photoshop, well, send it because this is getting out of control. Soon we will have more screen than windshield.
My reaction when I go from my Blazer EV huge screen to my Volt or even my Mustang with single din radio, oh my eyes can rest. I sit 8 hours per day at work with 3 monitors, a phone to look for notifications and messages, a rear mirror that is a camera also. This is just pushing me to go the opposite way when it comes to car screens. I dont want them anymore.
“Aw, it’s not for you. It’s more of a Shelbyville idea”