Mercedes-Benz F800 Style Concept

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Despite its name, the most intriguing part of the Mercedes-Benz F800 Style concept isn't its style at all: the Geneva motor show concept is also an amazing rolling showcase of the German automaker's future alternative powertrain and convenience technologies. With the possible exception of its sliding rear doors, expect to see many of the gee-whiz gadgets on the F800 on an E- or S-Class sedan in the coming years. The F800 is also rumored to be a not-so-subtle look at the exterior style of the next CLS-Class.

But while most of the future tech will wow you, Mercedes has possibly taken some of it a bit too far. Case in point: Traffic Jam Assist. The technology builds on Mercedes' existing Distronic cruise control system that accelerates and decelerates by itself down to a stop. Traffic Jam Assist can follow vehicles ahead of it even into curves up to 25 mph. Mercedes assures us that the car won't try to follow other commuters who suddenly make turns off the highway, but we're still not keen on a system that essentially relieves its driver of the effort required to repeatedly turn a steering wheel. If you don't have the energy to turn a wheel in stop-and-go traffic and want a Mercedes-Benz, you'd probably be better off hiring a chauffeur. One safety nanny we do like is Pre-Safe 360, which now also attempts to keep the driver from getting into a rear end collision as well as one from the front.
When you eventually reach your destination, if you're a rear-seat passenger, you'll exit through one of the F800's best ideas: rear pivot-and-slide doors. Entry-and-exit through small rear doors on a car with an aggressively sloped roofline can be difficult, but with no B-pillar and these van-style doors, slipping out of the car appears to be much easier. And since the rear sliding doors are suspended from an interior swivel arm, there are no unsightly track marks.

Mercedes says the F800 has a multi-drive platform, which means it can be fitted with either a hydrogen fuel cell or plug-in hybrid system. The fuel cell application, which is essentially the same setup employed on the B-Class F-CELL, produces 136 horsepower and 214 pound-feet of torque in the F800, according to the automaker. In years past, it sometimes helped to fit the fuel cell system to SUVs like a Toyota Highlander or Chevrolet Equinox in order to more easily to store the hydrogen tanks. In the F800, however, all alternative drive system components are hidden in the engine compartment and in gaps within the chassis. In the F800 fuel cell, two of the hydrogen tanks are beneath the rear seats while the other two are in the transmission tunnel between the front and rear passengers. The F800's lithium-ion battery pack sits beneath the rear seats, though it's unclear whether that has any effect on trunk capacity. Mercedes is claiming a range of up to 375 miles for the system, but like any hydrogen fuel cell setup, we'll believe it when we see it in a dealership.