2016 Best Driver's Car Contender:

The gullwing 2+2 concept has a low, sleek hood, a massive touchscreen inside, and an all-electric 

powertrain. It’s meant to show what a Mercedes-Benz car could look like, and do, in 10 or 15 years' time.

Named for its 6-meter length, the Mercedes-Maybach 6 is totally electric, with a massive battery pack located along the bottom of the car. The engine can achieve 750 horsepower; the car will hit 60 mph in less than four seconds. It has an automatic driving function, although Mercedes executives said it’s meant to be driven.

“This is a car you want to drive yourself,” Gorden Wagener, the Daimler AG head of design, told attendees at a cocktail-heavy debut event held on the lawn of the famous Pebble Beach Resort. Mercedes VIP buyers and media drank champagne and ate canapés while white private yachts floated in the nearby bay. 

“We see a big movement in analog things, and they are sustainable. … This is something you pass to your children, like a Leica camera or a chronograph watch. Driving has been a pleasure since 130 years and will stay that way another 130 years.”

The grille on the front is made to look like the pinstripes on a suit; the 24-inch rims, dual rear window, narrow side “mirrors” and spine-like divide along the back make the car extremely distinctive. Mercedes executives said it is meant to evoke emotion and intelligence, hot passion and cool rationality: “The key is to combine them,” Wagener said.

Inside, although media were not allowed to open the doors to the concept model, the car apparently has spacious seating for four. It has dials behind the steering wheel made to look like the dial on a mechanical watch and warm, polished wood accents. Executives say it can charge to a range of 62 miles in five minutes, if you use the strongest charger.

This is the latest product unveiled since Mercedes reignited the Daimler-owned Maybach line. Maybach had discontinued its standalone cars in December 2012 after years of making the type of stately European-style schooners that power players such as Jay-Z and Swizz Beatz drove around New York City. It launched the $1 million Mercedes-Maybach S600 Pullman and the $192,000 Mercedes-Maybach S600 sedan last year.

Mercedes executives wouldn’t comment on if, or when, they might produce the Mercedes-Maybach 6, but they certainly picked the right time to introduce such a statuesque car. The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance—the world’s premier car show and auction site, which showcases the most 

beautiful and expensive cars ever made—starts Sunday.