This gorgeous, ultra-luxurious version of the S-class is the Maybach division’s first hybrid, and it’s only going to a few lucky people in China and Europe.

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• Powered by a hybridized inline-six, this latest Mercedes-Maybach is the company’s first production car that can be plugged in.
• This Maybach is essentially a more luxurious version of the Mercedes S-Class, and it builds on the S580e’s well-tuned powertrain with length and luxury
• Mercedes-Maybach has already shown off several full battery-electric concepts, but the company’s production strategy is moving relatively slowly.

Seven years after showing off the all-electric Mercedes-Maybach Vision 6 at the 2016 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Mercedes is only now just inching its way toward a battery-powered future with its first hybrid model. That model, the just-introduced S580e, will be rolled out in a conservative fashion, first made available in China, then Thailand, then Europe. Electrification is coming to Mercedes-Maybach, but with the slow deliberation of one of the World War I dirigibles that the company’s engines once powered.

Those engines were inline-sixes and, in a nice echo, such is the case here. The Mercedes-Maybach S580e is closely related to the standard S-class plug-in hybrid, which was introduced three years ago. A 3.0-liter turbocharged straight-six engine provides 367 horsepower at peak and is paired with a 150-hp electric motor. Total system power is 510 horsepower, and total torque is 553 pound-feet of torque, and nearly 60 percent of that twist is available with the light-switch response of the electric motor.

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Should you wish to splatter rear-seat occupants with caviar and champagne, this new Mercedes-Maybach will sprint to highway speeds with most of the same vigor as its V-8–and V-12–powered cousins. But that sort of disrespectful behavior will get you in trouble, or, given the power wielded by the sort of people who can afford a Maybach, perhaps fired.

No, a Mercedes-Maybach is for serene, airship-like gliding, which the S580e promises to do par excellence. For one thing, with all due respect to rapper Rich Ross, true Maybach music is measured in near silence. A V-8–powered Maybach murmurs at just 64 decibels of in-cabin noise at 70 mph. Capable of running purely on electrons, the S580e will be even more discreet.

On a full charge, Mercedes says the Maybach S580e will run to a top speed of just under 87 mph on battery power and have a maximum range of 62 miles. Versus a normal S-class, the Maybach variant is some seven inches longer for greater room and can be optioned with all sort of opulent goodies, including a rear-seat refrigerator and branded champagne glasses.

Fuel economy is probably of little concern to the average Mercedes-Maybach customer, who likely has a private jet to fill up, but CO2 ratings are. The S580e treads lightly in terms of localized pollution and is thus ideal for low-emissions urban areas such as London’s expanding Ultra-Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ).

Before you’ll see a Mercedes-Maybach S580e there, the cars will arrive in China, where more than half of worldwide Maybach production ends up. In 2022, China snapped up some 1100 Mercedes-Maybachs every month.

Having somewhat fumbled Maybach in the past, with the ill-fated 57 and 62 of the early 2000s, Mercedes is playing the long game here. It might seem overcautious compared to the way EVs are being pushed into the mainstream globally, but note that 2022 marks the second year of record sales growth for the company. A dirigible does not turn quickly, but it doesn’t need to.