W206 Mercedes-Benz C-Class to receive tech from latest S-Class; ‘every major model gets innovation’

The W223 Mercedes-Benz S-Class made its debut last week, carrying the marque’s sedan into its seventh generation with a host of features and technology befitting its flagship status. Some of these features could also make their way into the forthcoming, W206-generation C-Class as well, Australian site Cars Guide reported.

The forthcoming C-Class will likely be heavily influenced by the S-Class in terms of technology, Mercedes-Benz chief Ola Källenius hinted. “Back in the day, many years ago now, the logic at Mercedes was that ‘we got it in the S-Class’, and then we have a gradual trickle down (of technology to other models),” Källenius said.

The German manufacturer has already departed from this philosophy ‘in the last five to seven years’, and every new architecture or major model will receive innovation, said the company chairman.

The next C-Class will feature a user interface modelled after the system in the W223 S-Class, as seen in this interior spyshot of the upcoming C-Class wagon

Though the S-Class continues to offer technology that will filter down to smaller models such as its portrait-oriented infotainment display that will appear in the W206 C-Class, an example of ‘trickle-up’ technology transfer is the MBUX infotainment system that made its debut on the W177 A-Class hatchback.

“(With) MBUX, we launched that in the A-Class, where we have our youngest customer to make the point. Mercedes now has a connected car that can be understood intuitively by everybody and we take it seriously,” said Källenius. “We trickle up and down quickly, and we have developed an engineering system now where the innovations that we launch can very quickly come to other vehicles,” he added.

Similarly, other instances of new technology introduced in models other than the S-Class include the 48-volt mild-hybrid powertrain technology that made its debut in the Mercedes-AMG CLS53, E53 Coupe and E53 Cabriolet, making these the first AMG models with a hybrid powertrain.

As for the W206 C-Class, this has been tipped to offer a diesel-hybrid powertrain for European markets, while the top AMG performance version will reportedly trade the current model’s 4.0 litre biturbo V8 for a hybrid version of the M139 2.0 litre turbo inline-four that makes 421 PS and 500 Nm in the A 45 S.

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