How Mercedes-Maybach rose from the dead

Published on July 3, 2024

Sjoerd van der Wal

At the beginning of October 1997, there weren’t many people who had heard of Maybach – and most of them probably hadn’t thought much about it. The name coined by Wilhelm Maybach, which first graced a car in 1909, had been dormant for decades; after a phase of building luxury cars in the pre-war period and a Second World War in which engines for tanks and Tigers were built, the company was bought by Mercedes’ parent company Daimler-Benz in 1960 and soon faded into history.

However, the cut has been pushed back to 2024, and the number of Maybach connoisseurs is likely in the hundreds of millions. A 2019 study by Car and Driver found that Maybach has been mentioned more often in popular songs over the past four decades than Rolls-Royce and Ford combined. The brand’s cars have become symbols of wealth and status across the cultural spectrum, appearing in everything from Curtis Jackson’s Power to HBO’s Succession.

The Maybach emblem has clearly experienced a renaissance over time – and it all began in the autumn of 1997. Thus, in the space of less than 30 years, the Maybach brand developed from a faded to a famous brand.

1997: A concept is presented

Photo credit: Mercedes-Maybach

The 1997 Tokyo Motor Show saw the unveiling of the concepts that introduced the retro BMW Z8 and gave us our first look at Volkswagen’s now legendary W12. But it also marked the first return of the Maybach badge on a new vehicle in decades. Finished in maroon and brown tones and sporting a four-eyed, almost alien-looking face, the Maybach concept was based on the S-Class chassis of its era, but carried a design penned by Mercedes-Benz’s Japanese design studio and featured unique luxury features such as an adjustable rear seat and a dashboard-mounted laptop.

However, it was not to remain a concept for long; when Mercedes-Benz’s German colleagues Volkswagen and BMW fought over the rights to Bentley and Rolls-Royce in 1998, the time had come for Mercedes to try its luck in the super-luxury segment.
2002: The first series models 57 and 62 come onto the market

Photo credit: Getty Images

DaimlerChrysler, as Maybach’s parent company was then called, pulled out all the stops to get the brand back on the road. In June 2002, the automaker shipped one of the first cars in a transparent box on the Queen Elizabeth 2 from England to the USA. The ship was met in New York Harbor by fireboats spraying water before a helicopter took the Maybach off the ship and brought it ashore so it could drive to Wall Street.

It may have been the grandest debut of a new car in America, but the production Maybach was definitely a spectacular one. It came in two versions, the long Maybach 57 and the even longer Maybach 62—the numbers represent the cars’ length in tenths of a meter—both powered by a velvety-smooth twin-turbo V12 and equipped with virtually every luxury feature Mercedes-Benz could offer, from massage seats to a Bose stereo with a six-CD changer. Those who chose the 62 could even choose a divider between the front and rear rows of seats, just like in a prom limo.
2005: Exelero one-off polishes Maybach’s star

These first Maybachs of the 21st century were anything but understated, but even they seemed innocuous compared to the next vehicle to bear the badge: the Maybach Exelero. Technically, the Exelero was a one-off concept car built by DaimlerChrysler and a small Italian car repair shop specializing in limited-edition vehicles. It used the chassis of the Maybach 57 and built a super coupe that looked like it was tailor-made for Darth Vader. Its engine was pumped up to 690 horsepower, and not just for show. As part of the car’s mission statement, Goodyear’s German subsidiary had required the nearly three-ton Exelero to be able to reach more than 217 miles per hour so they could test the limits of their high-performance tires. Unfortunately, only one example was built, but its incredible looks and top speed made it an instant icon. There were rumors that rapper Birdman had purchased the car, and although those rumors turned out to be false, it appeared in a Jay-Z music video.
2008: The 62 S Laundalet drops the roof

Photo credit: Maybach

Over the next few years, ’57s and ’62s slowly but steadily trickled into the world’s poshest neighborhoods, but aside from a few minor tweaks like a bigger, more powerful engine and a mild facelift, the cars remained largely unchanged. At least until 2008, when Daimler AG (as it was now known after splitting from Chrysler) reintroduced the long-lost Laundalet body style. From the B-pillar up, the Maybach 62 S Laundalet looked like any other Maybach; beyond that, however, the roof over the rear compartment had been replaced by a sleek electric fabric top that rose and fell between the roof rails. A total of 22 were made, including one for the aforementioned rapper Birdman.
2012: The dream disappears

Photo credit: Picture Alliance

However, neither special editions nor the impressive hip-hop fame the brand had gained since its return in 2002 were enough to keep the brand afloat. By the end of 2011, the brand had sold only around 3,000 units worldwide since 2002 – with Daimler losing around €330,000 on each unit, according to a media estimate at the time. (According to one report, only 44 Maybachs were sold in the US from January to October of that year.) As a result, Daimler announced at the end of 2011 that the following year would be the brand’s last; the last Maybach rolled off the production line on December 17, 2012.
2014: Return as a sub-brand

Photo credit: Roberto Machado Noa

But while Maybach may have been finished as a standalone brand, Daimler wasn’t quite done with the badge. Instead, the company brought it back once again in 2014 – but this time as a sub-brand of Mercedes-Benz. The new Mercedes-Maybach models would be similar to those of Mercedes-AMG, but instead of offering more power compared to the standard Benzes, the Maybach trims would offer even more luxury and more comfort.

The sub-brand’s first vehicle was a Mercedes-Maybach version of the S-Class, which had a wheelbase 7.9 inches longer than the regular long-wheelbase version of the W222 S-generation and was available with either V8 or V12 turbo engines. The design was much more restrained compared to the Maybach 57 and 62, but there was no lack of luxury; reclining seats were of course still present.
2017: Maybach takes over the G-Wagen

If Mercedes-Maybach’s first vehicle was relatively understated, the second to appear under the new sub-brand was anything but. The Mercedes-Maybach G 650 Laundalet took the legendary SUV – the boxy off-road monster that became a status symbol par excellence – and transformed it into a wild statement of excess. As with the 62 S Laundalet, the rear passenger compartment featured a retractable fabric top; the G’s chassis was also extended to accommodate a pair of reclining seats and a partition between the front and rear axles. A twin-turbocharged V12 engine from AMG provided the power, while the G 500 4×4² offered the ground clearance of a monster truck thanks to portal axles. Just 99 examples were built for the world, at a price of €749,700 (including taxes in Germany).
2019: Maybach’s “mainstream” SUVs

Photo credit: Gerlach Delissen – Corbis

Of course, the G-Class Laundalet wasn’t intended for mass consumption, even by the narrow definition of the term used by a luxury brand. But buyers love SUVs – and with Rolls-Royce launching the Cullinan and Bentley launching the Bentayga, Mercedes-Maybach needed its own, slightly more mainstream model. Enter the GLS 600, which debuted in November 2019 and gives the GLS-Class SUV a similar treatment to the Mercedes-Maybach version of the S-Class. It did without the S-Class’s wheelbase extension, as the GLS-Class was already spacious enough to accommodate a second row of adjustable captain’s seats.
2023: Maybach goes electric

Photo credit: Sean Gallup

In 2021, Mercedes-Benz announced plans to go fully electric by the end of the decade, and that meant Mercedes-Maybach would have to switch to battery power too. The first model to do so was the EQS 680 SUV, a super-luxury version of the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV launched the year before – which in turn was largely based on the EQS sedan. The company’s plans to go all-electric have since been scaled back in the face of a changing market, but the Maybach EQS SUV can already be seen on the roads, offering the same luxury and comfort as its petrol-powered siblings – just without the emissions.