Life in Maybach Mode

The new Maybach S-Class is here in India and this S 580 is made in India. This is the most advanced, most opulent, and largest form of the S-Class ever to be sold here. So, how does it fare in our test?

- Jim Gorde

LET'S FACE IT. THE AUTOMOTIVE WORLD HAS MOVED FORWARD a whole lot over the past decade, let alone the past century. Mercedes and, indeed, Maybach have both been around for longer than that and have created some fine automobiles for over a hundred years.

The first iteration by Maybach Motorenbau in 1921, Model W 3, was dedicated to maximum comfort and luxury. It had a 70-hp in-line six-cylinder engine and achieved 110 km/h. What followed in 1929 was the Maybach Model 12. The flagship, produced from 1930 as the Maybach Zeppelin, was the first production car with a V12 engine to be manufactured in Germany. Step up to the present and we have this X223 Maybach S 580 with a 503-hp twin-turbo V8 and 48-volt mild-hybrid system that can get from zero to 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds and tops out at an electronically governed 250 km/h.And to talk about the performance is barely scraping the surface of the tip of the iceberg.

The Maybach S 580 marks the next evolution of the three-pointed star’s super-luxury sub-brand. After the resurrection of the X222 S 500 and S 600 (the latter with the V12 engine), the X222 facelifts followed: S 560 and S 650. Now there are the S 580 V8 and the S680 V12 duo for 2022. The higher number represents an equally significant step forward in terms of not just engineering, but safety technology, connectivity, and the interactive interface for user experience. While the term “user” makes me cringe and think about software licence agreements, the fact is that many of the changes and updates are software-based, even defined. The vivid graphics, smartphone connectivity, multimedia, and comfort features are the result of millions of lines of code, embedded in a set of tiny microchips all working together to deliver an experience that, even in this day and age with technology abounding, seems unbelievable; especially when on the move.