Four Daimler board members convene to celebrate the world premiere of the new S-Class at the Shanghai World Expo on Tuesday. Photo Provided to China Daily

Timeless elegance, powerful performance still resonating with Merdeces-Benz customers

Mercedes-Benz held its global premiere for the new S-Class, together with AMG and Maybach variants at the Shanghai Expo Center on April 18, on the eve of Auto China 2017.

Lauded as the world's best-known luxury sedan, the S-Class boasts an impressive roster of car owners, ranging from the sophisticated Coco Chanel and Daniel Craig - of James Bond fame - to Charles De Gaulle.

Since its conception, the S-Class has consistently been upheld as the vehicle of choice for global leaders, superstars, and forward-thinkers.

"The Mercedes-Benz S-Class has long set the benchmark for automotive safety, comfort, intelligence, efficiency and innovation," said Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, at the premiere ceremony.

As a strong testament to its stalwart excellence and long-standing dominance in the market, the S-Class has sold roughly 4 million vehicles worldwide to date.

But despite this success, Mercedes-Benz refuses to rest on its laurels, preferring to continue forging ahead through constant innovation and improvement with the unveiling of the new S-Class.

"March 2017 was our best-ever month, and the first quarter of 2017 was our best-ever quarter in the long history of Daimler," said Zetsche. "China and the current S-Class contributed significantly to our ongoing global success."

There is no better place to launch the new S-Class than here in China, the biggest single market for the model worldwide.

With China taking hold of a larger leadership position on the global stage, the new S-Class, galvanized by its high quality and technologically sophisticated features, embodies the conviction of a new generation of leaders innovating a better world.

The new S-Class continues the legacy of the world's best-selling luxury saloon by empowering a new generation of global leaders. Photo Provided to China Daily

This aspirational attitude has especially taken hold in China, where customers accounted for one out of every three S-Class vehicles sold last year.

Driving this point home was Hubertus Troska, member of the board of management of Daimler responsible for China, who stated that over the past four years the company has sold more cars in this segment in China than its two major German competitors.

"Almost four years ago here in Shanghai, we had the premiere of the 10th generation S-Class," said Troska, signifying that this current generation has since exceeded expectations and has been warmly embraced by the market.

Proof of this positive reception lies in the fact that China accounts for 30 percent of S-Class sales worldwide and more than 60 percent of the Mercedes-Maybach sales worldwide, revealing the impressive range of China's S-Class owners - the biggest in the world by far.

"Today we can truly say: the S-Class product range with the Maybach S-Class is enjoying outstanding acceptance by our Chinese customers," said Troska.

This outstanding success not only applies to sales volumes, but also in terms of market recognition, with the S-Class fully accepted by Chinese customers as the top premium product in its segment.

The perfection of the S-Class lies in adaptation over the years, on a customer-oriented level that ensures its relevancy and warm market reception.

The new S-Class' human-centered design is self-evident through its extensive range of advanced features, such as multi-beam LED headlamps with the longest-in-segment lighting range of up to 650 meters, which empowers drivers to make accurate pre-judgments, and the energizing comfort control feature, with six pre-set comfort programs, delivering unprecedented levels of occupant relaxation.

More importantly, "our new S-Class is another major step toward autonomous driving", said Ola Kallenius, member of the board of management of Daimler, group research and Mercedes-Benz Cars development.

He elaborated with some examples, ranging from the S-Class' cutting-edge distronic driver assistance systems, which can now be easily controlled through embedded steering wheel elements, to the vehicle's intelligent usage of real-time map and navigation data to calculate driving behavior.

"This enables more periods of semi-automated driving on country roads," said Kallenius. "The result is a truly relaxed driving experience."

These functions are only the tip of the iceberg, with the sum of the S-Class' advanced design and technology features serving as reflections of Chinese customers' evolving tastes.

The company continues to place the strongest emphasis on providing products that resonate with the values and cultural context of its customers.

"We are confident the new generation S-Class will delight our Chinese customers with a wide range of new design and technology features. The 'best' car in the world has just got better," Troska said.

Mercedes-Benz' great faith in the new S-Class seems well deserved, with the vehicle's premiere already triggering a cascade of enthusiasm throughout the China market.

All eyes are on the unprecedentedly upgraded new S-Class, as the company extends its legend with a shining new chapter in China.

"And with the new generation of our legend, we will be able to continue this global success story," said Zetsche.