Dan Mihalascu is an accomplished automotive journalist with over two decades of automotive media work both internationally and in his home country of Romania.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, and he has reviewed (sometimes even raced) cars for most of his professional life.
Prior to joining HotCars.com in July 2025, Dan worked as a news writer and editor for InsideEVs.com, CarScoops.com and Autoevolution.com. He also has bylines at DriveMag.com and ConsumerAffairs.com, among other international media outlets.
In Romania, he wrote for car magazines, sports newspapers and even a TV news station.
Writing and cars aside, he loves reading, cycling, hiking and spending quality time with his family.
Mercedes-Benz Group chief designer Gorden Wagener has posted mysterious teaser images on his Instagram page that show a new model with a gigantic grille.
Compared with the new grille design that debuted at the IAA show in Munich last month on the new GLC EV, the grille in these photos appears much bigger, reaching all the way from the edge of the hood to the lowest part of the front bumper.
It reminds us of the grille donned by the Mercedes-Benz W111/W112 and W108/W109 luxury sedans, which were some of the ancestors of the S-Class line. That type of radiator grille was probably best worn by the iconic 300 SEL 6.8 ‘Red Pig’ race car – AMG’s first Mercedes, based on the 1971 Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3.
“That iconic grille we introduced at IAA in Munich? Consider it the spark for a creative impulse. Get ready for what’s next.”
Gorden Wagener, Mercedes-Benz Group chief designer on Instagram
Wagener’s description of the teaser images leads us to believe the massive grille will be featured on a new production car. We can see in the photos that the grille is illuminated, as is the three-pointed star that sits above it.
Usually, Mercedes-Benz puts the star hood ornament on its more upscale luxury sedans and SUVs like the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class sedan, GLS and EQS SUVs, as well as regular S-Class and EQS sedans, depending on the trim level. The star ornament is not featured on its performance vehicles, so the new model is unlikely to be an AMG.
That narrows it down to a few models, with the main suspects being the S-Class and the GLS – in Mercedes-Maybach attire or not. While the GLS is due for a refresh for the 2027 model year, the vehicle in the teaser image sits too close to the ground to be an SUV, so we have to rule it out.
Here’s where things get interesting. Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that an all-electric S-Class based on its new MB.EA platform is under development as a replacement for the slow-selling EQS. We also know that the electric S-Class will look similar to gas-powered variants, so maybe the grille will be the one that will differentiate them.
Another element that supports the teased vehicle being an S-Class is the fact that the headlights seen in this teaser have a similar shape to the S-Class headlamps and feature an inner design with a three-pointed star LED cluster look. We’ve seen a very similar light signature on 2027 S-Class prototypes spotted in testing. This could mean that the electric S-Class will launch along with the rest of the facelifted S-Class lineup. But what if the future S-Class lineup regains Coupe and Convertible body styles?
In a previous teaser posted on his Instagram two days ago, Wagener showed a detail of the vehicle’s side profile, which looks like a coupe. He accompanied the image with a caption that read: “The shape of things to come.”
Then in a newer post, he showed details of the vehicle’s luxurious interior as “an exclusive glimpse of something special.”
And right before starting this teasing campaign, Wagener posted a few times about the all-electric Mercedes-Maybach Vision 6 Coupe and Vision 6 Cabriolet, hinting that these concepts are sources of inspiration for a new model. It’s pretty clear now that he was talking about the next evolution of these concepts, one that likely previews ultra-luxurious S-Class Coupe and Convertible production models, possibly with an all-electric powertrain.
Back to the grille in the teaser images, it is similar to the one seen on the new Mercedes-Benz GLC with EQ Technology, albeit significantly larger. On the GLC, the illuminated grille has 942 LED pixels that recreate the design of old Mercedes radiator grilles. Expect a lot more pixels on this one.
Interestingly, while BMW is shrinking its grilles, Mercedes is making them bigger. We’ll let you be the judge of which of these two arch-rivals is making the right call. One thing is certain: like high tide and low tide, you can always count on German luxury automakers to enlarge and shrink their grilles periodically.
Source: Gorden Wagener / Instagram
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