Mercedes has a new electric Maybach SUV and it’s pretty insane (especially the price tag)

Mercedes has a new transport solution for the environmentally conscious unicorn founder who also likes a bit of classical style – the Mercedes-Maybach EQS 680 SUV.

The German luxury car manufacturer dropped its first Maybach with an electric drivetrain ahead of the Shanghai motor show motor show this week.

You can expect the EQS SUV to land in Australia from July onwards this year, but you’d better start saving now, with the price expected to sit at the upper end of the $500,000+ range.

It looks like the sort of car Kendall Roy would go to his father’s funeral in, assuming it comes in black.

If what happens when you hit the accelerator matters, the all-wheel-drive car has an output of 484kW and torque of 950Nm from what the company calls two “permanently excited synchronous motors”, with a provisional range of up to 600km.

Top speed is an immediate confiscation level 210kmh, but in the meantime, you can burn off Tesla Model 3 owners by going 0-100kmh in 4.4 seconds.

There’s 440 litres of boot space, so you can always pop a Nissan Leaf in the back as a backup plan.

The front interior of the Mercedes-Maybach EQS 680 SUV

And while they won’t get PETA sign off, the Merc-May team have the environment in mind in using vegetable-tanned Nappa leather for the interior. The secret is coffee bean shells and apparently they’re saving around 45kg of salt per vehicle on the leather seats – a factoid to tell your friends at the next Cranbrook School council meeting.

Mercedes says its leather has to be sustainably produced – checking the supply chain for illegal deforestation. Personally, we’re waiting until they use cultured meat leather.

The most amazing part, especially if you’re travelling with flatulent passengers is the car has what’s known has the “Air Balance Package” to keep things smelling sweet.

“A special fragrance was created for the Mercedes-Maybach EQS SUV. No. 12 MOOD Ebony is an extraordinary and polarising fragrance,” Mercedes says, announcing the car.

The rear interior of the EQS 680 SUV

“It does not aim to please but to seduce. Stimulating sandalwood combines with notes of spices to create an exclusive composition.”

The release does not offer tips on how to get footprints off the interior roof of the car should the scent end up being too seductive.

We’ve put the key details down below, but for any founders playing Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping with the sound turned up to 11 after the failure of their latest venture, the Burmester 4D surround sound system should help. The car has 15 speakers: two front bass speakers in the front footwell, one midrange and one tweeter in each door, two 3D speakers in the headliner, two surround speakers in the luggage compartment cover and a center speaker in the instrument panel.

The media release says “there are also two exciters in each seat”, which “makes the listening experience four-dimensional”. We’re a little worried about what the seat exciters could lead to when combined with the seductive scent, but no doubt 4D chess players will enjoy it.

The company has also built a synthesised acoustic experience they’ve named “Aerial Grace”, which is interactive and reacts to a dozen different parameters including accelerator pedal position, speed and recuperation (is that after using the seat exciters? Dunno.) to get the amplification just right.

Hopefully there’s a button you can press to noise cancel your CFO complaining about the company’s cash burn.

Merc’s Chief Design Officer Gorden Wagener sounded like he’s been hitting the seat exciters when he said; TThe interior is an emotional and stylish statement. The lounge character promises luxurious travel at the highest level. Together with the innovative, progressive SUV proportions, we are completely redefining the SUV luxury of the future.”

Here are some numbers if you’re into those details.

And yes, it also comes in white.

Mercedes-Maybach EQS 680 SUV