The Project Maybach concept honours the late Virgil Abloh

Anyone familiar with the fashion world will have been saddened by the death of Virgil Abloh last month, and since then Mercedes has paid its own tribute by revealing the Project Maybach; an electric concept co-created by the late designer.

Working alongside Gorden Wagener - the automotive figure responsible for the A-Class, GLE and many other staples of the Merc line-up - the pair dreamed up a car ‘inspired by the great outdoors’ that would take the luxury brand out of its usual urban habitat.

The Project Maybach is the result: at almost six metres long it is vastly bigger than the S-Class limousine, and yet only contains two seats; surely setting some kind of world record for leg room.

Mercedes says every element has been built from scratch, which isn’t hard to believe. The ‘off-road coupe’ sports no fewer than eight spotlights for maximum vision at night, chunky tyres for maximum performance on tricky terrain, and an exterior roll cage for, er, maximum roll protection. Not a feature you’d want to put to the test, if we’re honest.

The interior certainly looks like it does justice to the Maybach brand, although we have several questions regarding the frame-embedded axe marked ‘emergency use only’.

As with any vision of future travel the Project Maybach is fully electric, with range topped up via solar panels located underneath the transparent bonnet.

Mercedes has declined to offer up any specs, although it does make it abundantly clear that the concept is ‘untethered by production requirements’. Which is corporate speak for ‘there isn’t a hope in hell of us actually building it’.

The car was quietly displayed at the Rubell Museum in Florida for two days early in December, in accordance with the wishes of Abloh’s family.

“Mercedes-Benz is devastated to hear of the passing of Virgil Abloh,” said the company in a statement in the days after the designer’s passing. “Our sincere thoughts are with Virgil’s family and teams. 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.”