Mercedes-Benz’s latest tester of their upcoming 2017 E-Class sedan leaves very little to our imagination.

The black prototype was spied almost completely undisguised, as only the lights, front bumper air vents, and parts of the rear bumper and boot lid were tapped off, ahead of an anticipated launch at the Detroit Motor Show in January and before going on sale in the summer of the same year.

Overall, it has a sleeker and more youthful presence than the current, fourth-gen E-Class, with the exterior and interior designs being exactly what you’d expect from a car positioned between the sportier C-Class and the more elegant and luxurious S-Class. Hint; they’re more elegant than the former and sportier than the latter…

Mercedes will offer two different treatments for the front end of the W213-codenamed model, one with the traditional chrome grille and the star on the hood, and another sportier one incorporating the star within twin blades.

Inside, the dashboard will be closer in design to Benz’s flagship S-Class, though, at least on the testers we’ve seen so far, the fully digital instrument panel is replaced by twin analogue dials. The widescreen display above the center console, remains, but under the S-Class-style air vents, you’ll find switchgear that is more common with the C-Class.

The new E-Class is built on a fresh modular platform named MRA that is shared with the C- and S-Class models, and is expected to grow in width and length over the current model, but at the same time, it will be around 100kg or 220 pounds lighter. A new air-suspension will be available on higher-end models along with a boatload of tech features.  
Powering Stuttgart’s BMW 5-Series competitor will be a new generation of 2.0-liter four-cylinder and 3.0-liter inline-six diesels and gasoline turbo engines, as Mercedes is following BMW’s example of creating modular units that share the same 0.5-liter displacement for every cylinder. These units will be paired to a nine-speed automatic driving the rear or all-four wheels. A plug-in hybrid variant with a 2.0-liter gasoline engine, as well as a 5.5-liter V8 bi-turbo for the AMG and AMG S performance variants will be included too.

Photo Credits: CarPix for CarScoops

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