Benjamin M. Monroe Blog: Pebble Beach 2018: Mercedes-Benz EQ Silver Arrow

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Pebble Beach 2018: Mercedes-Benz EQ Silver Arrow

You’ve gotta love Pebble Beach. The concept cars companies debut in the beautiful Monterey, California during the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance are always jaw dropping. Regardless of your brand preference, there’s no denying how awesome many of these concepts are. For instance, the Mercedes-Benz EQ Silver Arrow.

Designed to pay homage to the original Silver Arrow, a highly-successful Mercedes-Benz W125 racer from 1937, the EQ Silver Arrow is an all-electric, single-seat beauty.

“Over 80 years ago, the historic Silver Arrows demonstrated that Mercedes-Benz was a pioneer when it came to speed, thanks, among other things, to their streamlined shape,” says Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer at Daimler AG. “The EQ Silver Arrow show car draws on that legacy. Intended for acceleration and driving pleasure, it embodies progressive luxury and provides an insight into the future of our design. As a result, the show car drives the design idiom of our new EQ product and technology brand to the top.”

Obviously, we’re BMW enthusiasts here but, above all, we’re car enthusiasts and this new EQ Silver Arrow is flat-out awesome. It has a body structure made entirely from carbon fiber, Alubeam Silver paint that makes it look like it’s painted with liquid metal, a single-seat driving position and quite possibly the coolest wheels I’ve seen on any car, concept or otherwise, in a very long time.

Those wheels are made from lightweight aluminum and feature 168 rose-colored spokes. They look incredible, even if they do feature fixed, non-rotating hubcaps that cover half the wheel. Admittedly, I wish Mercedes would take those hubcaps off to let us see those glorious looking wheels in their entirety, but they still look awesome.

Inside the EQ Silver Arrow, the cockpit is line with the only three materials that should ever grace the interior of a premium car — leather, metal and wood. While there is some carbon fiber in this interior (which is for the birds), it’s forgivable considering how stunning the rest of the interior is.

Powering the EQ Silver Arrow is an 80 kWh battery and a pair of electric motors making 738 hp. While that won’t sound as good as the 1937 Silver Arrow’s 12-cylinder engine, it will certainly be faster.

These are the sorts of concept cars that spark the imagination of enthusiasts and we’re glad it debuted at Pebble Beach. The badge on the grille makes no difference.