Mercedes F800 Style Concept: 2011 Mercedes CLS

The Mercedes F800 Concept will be at Geneva and previews the 2011/2012 Mercedes CLS

One of the biggest style successes in the car world in the last decade has been the four-door swoopy-coupe. And the whole genre started life – at least in a mainstream way – with the launch of the Mercedes CLS in 1994. It was Mercedes’ return to the ‘Executive Coupe’ market after a ten year gap (the W124 version of the E-Class Coupe) but broke new ground with its four-door configuration in a coupe body.

At the time it launched it looked like the CLS would be a real niche car. But it turned out to be a big success for Mercedes and spawned a whole new class of car. There have been imitators from the Passat CC to the current batch of high-end four-door coupes like the Porsche Panamera and the Aston Martin Rapide.

Six years on from launch and a new Mercedes CLS is on the horizon. And we’ll get to see the 2011 Mercedes CLS at the Geneva Motor Show in concept form as the Mercedes F800 Style Concept. It gets some of the usual concept flights of fancy like sliding rear doors (which seems a step too far for anything but a people carrier), a futuristic interior and some bulging wheel arches, but apart from that it looks like this is the 2011 CLS.

As you would expect these days, Mercedes has an ‘Eco’ powertrain planned for the new CLS. In fact, it has two. The ‘Mainstream’ Eco running gear is a V6 plug-in hybrid with a 100bhp electric motor which can run in pure EV mode for up to 18 miles. It looks like this hybrid system is the same one Mercedes previewed in the Mercedes Vision S500 Hybrid at Frankfurt last year.

But it’s good to see that the other is a fuel cell (presumably a hydrogen fuel cell) CLS which is driven by an electric motor powered by the hydrogen fuel cell. Mercedes are already quietly experimenting with hydrogen fuel cells – like the Mercedes B Class F-Cell – and it’s good to see them pushing forward in the 2011 CLS.

Good looking car.

By Cars UK