Mercedes-Benz always has a stunning concept to showcase at the Consumer Electronic show in Las Vegas, this year was no different with the Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR ( Advanced Vehicle Transformation ) concept . The Vision AVTR was heavily inspired by the James Cameron’s blockbuster hit Avatar and highlights the connection between nature , humans and machinery. It takes into account all the visual details in the movie that could be carried over into this concept including the Na’vi people along with their flying creatures that have their silhouettes as small details in the car.
The Vision AVTR can be controlled and operated by the centre console and for the launch Mercedes-Benz head Ola Källenius drove this concept car on stage by just controlling it from the centre console that also reads your pulse. The entire interiors elements have been designed to reflect the Na’vi tribe homes that was showcased in the movie. To take it up a level with this concept Mercedes have incorporated a virtual reality system that lets you explore the planet of Pandora from the comfort of this concept car’s hammock style seats. They have sourced some sustainable “Dinamca” faux leather and “Karoon” that is wood which was extracted from the Amazon forests that give it a unique look with all of those recycled materials.
Mercedes also announced that this concept car features a battery pack made out of recycled minerals that make up 110 Kilowatt-hour battery that uses a graphene-based organic cell chemistry. This is quite an ambitious project by Mercedes but let’s hope it becomes a reality, as for the motors powering the Vision AVTR it use a 470bhp unit that is married to the battery pack which is supposed to get a claimed 700 kilometres of range. Another stand out feature that was shown on stage at CES was the crab crawling mode that the car can turn on a dime by rotating all the wheels up to 30-degrees and make the car more manoeuvrable. The car has a unique set of scales on the rear section of the car the Mercedes Benz refers to it as bionic flaps that is meant to mimic the raising of the hair of animals and can be adapted for other aerodynamic purposes when the car is in motion. The take away from a concept like this is we can see some of these features down the line in a couple of years on regular Mercedes models.