Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius previews the upcoming new S-Class

21 January 2026

In a short video, Mercedes' CEO Ola Källenius previewed the upcoming S-Class refreshed model. The car itself is camouflaged, so you can see only tiny bits of the new design.

Even though the upcoming S-Class release is labeled as "refresh", the CEO says that it's the most "radical refresh" in Mercedes history to mark the 140th anniversary of the company this year.

Engineers had to change about 2,700 parts inside the vehicle, which translates to more than 50% of the car itself. Perhaps that's why a simple "refresh" doesn't accurately describe the update.

We can expect a new front fascia along with the iconic LED Mercedes star logo, and buyers will be able to customize their vehicles in any exterior and interior color in the world through an exclusive customization program.

As Ola Kallenius rides in the back seat in the video, he describes the updated sound system with Dolby Atmos tuning as a "concert hall". He also highlights the new cloud-based Float technology that upgrades the existing Airmatic suspension. When the car drives through a bump or a pothole, it uploads the data onto the cloud server so other S-Class models equipped with the Float tech can access the information about the road obstacles.

Mercedes also built its MB.OS operating system from the ground up, and the upcoming S-Class will be the first vehicle to run on the said OS.