Merc R&D boss: “I think Tesla is great news for the car industry”

Meet the man with some of the deepest pockets in motoring. Prof Thomas Weber is responsible for research and development at Mercedes-Benz, which currently chews through cash at the eye-watering rate of £10million each day of the working week. That’s £2.1billion, every year, on chopping out weight, slashing CO2 emissions and dreaming up 22nd Century tech.

With such a mighty wallet to wield, it’s fascinating to hear what the Prof has to say about new car trends, about who’s going to buy the uber-Mercs of the future, and yes, whether the Model 3 pre-order frenzy has changed the car world forever. Here’s what he opined to TG on the launch of the reassuringly opulent S-Class Cabriolet.

Oh, and it might interest you to learn this chat wasn’t conducted in an interview room or over the telephone, but while Weber was driving an S500 Cabriolet. Quite briskly. How’s that for multitasking?

“I was discussing this with my colleagues this morning – a small electric vehicle is now available, so there is a chance that the infrastructure will grow and public acceptance will also grow. [The Model 3] is bringing EVs into a more affordable area and into the public’s eye. The Model S is not for everybody. That’s our argument – after our SLS E-cell, the technology will make it into more affordable vehicles.

“The key question for me is ‘when will we see the tipping-point'? When will EVs really [become] volume sellers? That’s still not clear. But with these kinds of vehicles, and the growing understanding that we have to protect the environment, it makes a lot of sense to go electric, especially in urban areas. For now, for us, plug-in hybrids are the best compromise."

“I think we want to drive more so in a cabriolet. A cabriolet is a fun car, an emotional car. So we want the autonomous systems for the safety front, so if you’re not concentrating, in a discussion with your passenger, you’re safe.

"If you ask me ‘will a Mercedes in ten years’ time still have a steering wheel?’, I think yes. I was driving this S500 this morning on some beautiful roads and thought, why would I want to let the car have the fun, driving for me? But then if I needed to drive to my office in terrible traffic in Palo Alto or Silicon Valley, then of course I’d like the car to drive for me while I check my emails and make some phonecalls. But on a country road, that’s not where we need self-driving cars."

“Look to Silicon Valley. These young guys, earning tons of money – the Google executives, and from Apple. Our most important market is the US, then Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. Yes, it’s going to be people for whom money is not a problem that’s the customer base; people who expect the highest level of comfort. Young rich buyers want a sporty car too, which is the reason for making the AMG – the first AMG S-Class soft-top.”

“We need to have a new type of luxury, where we have the technology package but it’s not constantly beeping at me and being annoying. I only want the systems to make a sound after they have begun [to intervene.] Some of the technology should be visible, and some hidden.

"Take these big screens we use for the infotainment. All our customers are surrounded by big screens now; their smartphone, their iPad, their television. They demand the same features in their car. So, we put it in the S-Class, and now it’s in the new E-Class. If we continued using old dials, they would argue ‘you’re not techy enough'."

“We believed there is no rival in the market – that’s exactly the reason we did a Cabriolet with the new S-Class. To build such a cabriolet is one of the biggest challenges – not only in the high-end luxury segment where volume is relatively small, but also the need to have a platform and technology package to support it.”