The UFO has just landed. This is the Mercedes-Benz Vision Tokyo, the latest space buster launched from the Stuttgart space station straight to the Tokyo Auto Show. The Vision Tokyo will be officially displayed in the Japanese capital starting October, 30.
In a metropolis with over 10 million residents in just 622 square kilometers, with centuries old shrines and temples and skyscrapers piercing the sky, the urban transformer Mercedes-Benz Vision Tokyo comes as a monolithic structure with futuristic design and a lounge-like luxurious interior.
Two days after Mercedes-Benz revealed the sidelines of the concept vehicle, the company now shows it in all its glory. “The Mercedes-Benz Vision Tokyo embodies the concept of an automotive lounge for a future generation of megacities. The purity and sensuality of the Vision Tokyo’s styling define a new interpretation of modern luxury from Mercedes-Benz”, says Gorden Wagener, Head of Design at Daimler AG.
In the heart of a hectic city, where traffic congestions last for hours and trains carry millions daily, the Mercedes-Benz Vision Tokyo comes as a chill-out space. The concept car is a tribute paid to the urban Generation Z, the young men of today, born in the era of the internet and new media. The car is converted from a simple way of getting around into a digital companion.
Just like the smartphone in your pocket, the car constantly evolves. With each journey, the vehicle will know more about you and will act accordingly to please you. The monochrome Alubeam paintwork and side windows screen-printed in the color of the car guarantee the privacy the occupants need, but still letting the light penetrate through the glass into the lounge-like cockpit and not obstructing the view. Instead of a conventional windscreen, the Vision Tokyo features a continuous stretch of glass paneling.
In the country where nightclubs are prohibited, the Mercedes-Benz Vision Tokyo looks like a discotheque. 
Surfaces and contours are illuminated in blue, indicating the car’s emission-free electric drive system. The area across the front of the vehicle can display various lighting functions. If music plays inside the vehicle, the display will visualize a sound pattern similar to the image of a sound analyzer. The rear window is framed by red LED cubes.
With its mid-size vehicle dimensions, (length/width/height: 4,803/2,100/1,600 mm), the Vision Tokyo can accommodate up to five five passengers, who can access the interior via the upward-swinging door on the left-hand side. 26-inch wheels will roll the car through the city of the Sky Tree tower, one of the tallest free standing structures in the world.
The sightseeing from inside the car is now so easy. The conventional seating arrangement simply melted away in the vision of the future, as the passengers can comfortably sit on an oval-shaped sofa with back-lit seats. The face-to-face layout will also enable communication among the Generation Z social media addicts. Once the car is set in the autonomous driving mode, the passengers can chill and chat, without minding the traffic.
Like in a UFO built for the Hollywood sci-fi movies, they will be surrounded by massive wraparound LED screens, displaying apps and maps as 3D holograms within the cockpit. Whenever the driver wants to take manual control, a seat pops out from the center of the sofa at the front, as if it was some magic trick.
And the magic does not stop there. The bodyshell of the Vision Tokyo has especially been designed to safely host the crash-protected integration of a fuel cell-powered electric drive system, based on F-CELL PLUG-IN HYBRID of the F 015 Luxury in Motion. The drive system combines the on-board generation of electricity with a powerful and compact high-voltage battery that can be charged via induction. The use of pressure tanks is envisaged for the storage of hydrogen in the concept car.
The electric hybrid system has an outstanding range of 980 kilometers, of which roughly 190 kilometers are guaranteed by the battery-powered driving, while for the rest of 790, the car will use the electricity produced in the fuel cell.
Mercedes-Benz does not offer any details regarding a possible model derived from this concept. But basically, the Vision Tokyo is an MPV. Some elements can be transferred to the next B-Class generation, but we have to consider that Mercedes-Benz is planning a practical vehicle based on the current C-Class generation. Rumours claim that it will be a more practical car than the current BMW 3 Series GT and the MPV concept could be the ideal solution to start with.
