Mercedes-Benz unveiled the first images of the 2016 Mercedes-Maybach Pullman S600 limousine prior to its debut at the Geneva Motor Show next month.
The four-door, six-seat model has been in development for the last year and a half, and like its immediate predecessors it will offer 2+2+2 seating complete with a middle row of rear-facing seats.
Positioned above the Mercedes-Maybach S600, the Pullman will be powered by the 6.0-liter V-12 engine found in the S600 -- good for 523 hp and 612 pounds feet of torque.
Like its predecessors, the Pullman will be offered in unarmored and armored form, with the heavier version expected to provide VR9-level ballistic protection, as on the factory S600 Guard model.
Prices for the unarmored version should start at around $567,000, or half a million Euros, while the armored version is likely to start at around $1 million, as with previous-generation Pullmans.
"Quite apart from providing stately and stylish seating for high-ranking passengers in the comfort and spaciousness for which it is famed, the new Mercedes-Maybach Pullman is of course the embodiment of exclusivity at its highest level," said Ola Källenius, member of the Daimler AG Management Board responsible for sales and marketing of Mercedes-Benz cars. "One can sense the significance and greatness of it in every detail."
Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the new Pullman will use an architecture similar to that which debuted on the Mercedes-Maybach S600, including a re-engineered rear section with redesigned rear doors.
Previous versions from the W140 generation through the W221 generation of the Pullman, which this model is replacing, used rear doors and frames borrowed from the long-wheelbase S-class models with an inserted middle-row section from the B-pillar backwards.
The new Mercedes-Maybach Pullman S600 will be 21.3 feet long, which will make it 3.5 feet longer than the Mercedes-Maybach S600 that made its stateside debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show last December. The new limousine will also be 3.9 inches taller than the standard S-class, for extra headroom.
When it comes to the interior, no expense will be spared and the forward-facing row of rear seats with integrated calf cushions will be able to recline by 43.5 degrees. Leather will cover just about every surface of the interior, and the Pullman will also have a powered partition window separating the passenger compartment from the driver.
