1 best of : Q&A With Mercedes-Benz E-Class Chief Engineer Michael Kelz

The Mercedes-Benz E-Class takes a big step forward in its latest generation, offering semi-autonomous driving technologies, an S-Class-inspired cabin, and many other improvements. We sat down with one of the key people behind the 2017 model’s evolution, Michael Kelz, chief engineer for the E-Class, CLS-Class, and GLC-Class, to find out what went into the car’s development.

Angus MacKenzie: The E-Class has been the car that defined Mercedes-Benz for decades. Is it still?

Michael Kelz: It’s really the core car of Mercedes, and of MRA, the new rear-wheel-drive architecture. MRA is the basis for the C-Class, the GLC, and the next CLS. Some components, plus the electrical architecture, will also go into the next-generation S-Class. From the first day we developed the MRA E-Class was always the core.

AM: The bandwidth of the E-Class range stretches from the Düsseldorf taxi driver’s diesel to the E63 AMG. Do the demands of one compromise the desires of the other?

MK: There’s benefit for every customer. The taxi driver gets a car that has a light, stiff, and rigid body structure, and the people driving the AMGs benefit from having a lot of components in their cars that are produced in large volumes and so are less expensive. And finally, the customer who only does 12,000 miles a year benefits from a car that meets the reliability requirement of someone who does 250,000 miles a year.

AM: What gave you the most sleepless nights during the development program?

MK: The new electrical architecture, the new head unit, and the driver-assistance systems such as Drive Pilot, which impact the engines, transmission, brake, and steering functions. The classical engineering — chassis, engine, body — is a lot of work but straightforward. The electrical architecture and systems were a major challenge, especially as they would be the basis for all cars coming in the future.

AM: How many E-Class variants can you build?

MK: Can’t say. None of them are really all the same. We didn’t try to calculate it, and I don’t know that we will ever build all possible variants.