Mercedes Teases Its First Virtual Show Car

Mercedes-Benz Chief Design Officer Gorden Wagener teases the brand’s first all-virtual show car on his Instagram. Based on the hashtags he uses in the post, the vehicle might debut during the 2022 League of Legends World Championship that runs from September 29 to November 5.

Wagener’s teaser drapes the car in a translucent tarp that provides a glimpse at the vehicle underneath. In general, its lines are very round. There’s a rectangular grille in front with an illuminated Mercedes emblem in the middle. The headlights are vertical light strips. The fenders stick out far from the body. Judging by the proportions, the machine seems to be a coupe.

The show car’s shape looks a little like a more exaggerated version of the recent Mercedes-AMG Vision AMG Concept. That model also has lots of curves, but this one has a more bulbous passenger compartment.

Mercedes imagines the Vision AMG Concept as what a future electric performance sedan could look like. It would ride on the AMG.EA vehicle architecture and use axial flux motors. 

League of Legends belongs to the multiplayer online battle arena video game genre. In the most common competitive mode, two teams of five players compete to destroy the other side’s base. They can also kill non-player characters to gain experience points and gold.

It’s not clear how this Mercedes might incorporate into the game. Some of the playable characters ride animals or pilot vehicles, so the car could conceivably fill a role like this.

The company Riot Games makes League of Legends. For this year’s world championship, it tapped Lil Nas X to create a theme song for the event.

Mercedes has a history of working with Riot Games during the League of Legends World Championship. Last year, Mercedes helped design the ring that the event’s winners received. Wagener posted a brief video about it (above) on his Instagram at the time.