Mercedes dusts off “Project Maybach” electric off-road two-seater coupe

German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz has unveiled a 2-seater battery electric off-road coupé show car that was designed collaboratively between Daimler chief design officer Gorden Wagener and the late fashion designer Virgil Abloh of Louis Vuitton fame.

The unveiling of the so-called ‘Project Maybach’ seems to have been quickly remodified so as to serve as a memorial to Abloh, the 41-year-old fashion designer who died on Sunday after a two-year battle with cardiac angiosarcoma.

Abloh, who founded the design company Off-White and headed Louis Vuitton’s menswear division, was a first-generation Ghanaian American and set a trailblazing path for the black community.

Project Maybach was designed collaboratively by Abloh with Garden Wagener, interpreting Mercedes-Maybach’s luxury identity with what the company describes as “a new design language and pushed the boundaries of function, style, and collaborative creativity.”

“Inspired by the great outdoors and recontextualizing a traditionally urban brand within a distinctly off-road environment, the 2-seater, battery-electric off-road coupé combines huge Gran Turismo proportions, large off-road wheels and distinctive attachments,” the company explained.

Abloh’s contribution follows from his collaboration with Mercedes-Benz in 2020 to design the race-car inspired Project Geländewagen, based on the company’s iconic G-class wagon.

And while Project Maybach certainly evokes the Mercedes-Maybach 6 concept from 2016 with its long-hood proportions, Mercedes-Benz was at pains to explain that every element of the show car was built from scratch and was a “design unlike anything that has been developed” by the company.

Designed very much with off-roading in mind, Project Maybach is kitted out with knobby all-terrain tires and an exterior roll cage, metal skid plates at the front and rear and body cladding with exposed rivets over the wheel wells, and enough headlights and roof lights to illuminate a not-so-small desert concert.

Mercedes-Benz were unclear as to whether or not Project Maybach represents a possible future production car, saying instead that the “show car exemplifies the possibilities of future design and is the result of an on-going co-operation with the polymath artist, architect, creative director, fashion designer and philanthropist.”

“Mercedes-Benz is devastated to hear of the passing of Virgil Abloh,” Mercedes-Benz AG said.

“Our sincere thoughts are with Virgil’s family and teams.  Now opening the world of our collaboration, and Virgil’s unique vision, to the public we want to respectfully celebrate the work of a truly unique design talent, who created endless possibilities for collaboration through his unbridled imagination and inspired all that knew his work.”