Maybach (, ) is a German luxury car brand owned by and a part of Mercedes-Benz AG. The original company was founded in 1909 by

Wilhelm Maybach Wilhelm Maybach (; 9 February 1846 – 29 December 1929) was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was hailed in France, then the world centre for car production, as the "King of Designers". From the late 19th ce ...

and his son Karl Maybach, originally as a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

of ''

Luftschiffbau Zeppelin Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH is a German aircraft manufacturing company. It is perhaps best known for its leading role in the design and manufacture of rigid airships, commonly referred to as ''Zeppelin, Zeppelins'' due to the company's prominence ...

GmbH (; ) is a type of Juridical person, legal entity in German-speaking countries. It is equivalent to a (Sàrl) in the Romandy, French-speaking region of Switzerland and to a (Sagl) in the Ticino, Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. It is a ...

'', and it was known as ''Luftfahrzeug-Motorenbau GmbH'' until 1999. Maybach-Limousine

In 1960, Maybach was acquired by

Daimler-Benz Mercedes-Benz Group AG (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler, and Daimler) is a Germany, German Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive company headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is o ...

. The name returned as a standalone ultra-luxury car brand in 2002, sharing significant components with Mercedes-Benz cars. After slow sales, Maybach ceased to be a standalone brand by 2013, and it became (in 2015) a sub-brand of Mercedes-Benz, which the

Mercedes-Benz Group Mercedes-Benz Group AG (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler, and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive company headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacturers. Daimler-B ...

owns. , Daimler produces an ultra-luxury edition of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV and the Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class under the

Mercedes-Maybach Maybach (, ) is a German luxury car brand owned by and a part of Mercedes-Benz AG. The original company was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach and his son Karl Maybach, originally as a subsidiary of ''Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH'', and it was ...

name.

1909–1940: Early history

Wilhelm Maybach was the technical director of the '' Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft'' (DMG) until he left in 1907. On 23 March 1909, he founded the new company, ''Luftfahrzeug-Motorenbau GmbH'' (literally "Aircraft Engine Building Company"), with his son Karl Maybach as director. In 1912, they renamed it to ''Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH'' ("Maybach Engine Construction Company"). The company originally developed and manufactured diesel and petrol engines for

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155� ...

s, and then rail cars. Its Maybach Mb.IVa was used in aircraft and airships of World War I. The company first built an experimental car in 1919, introduced as a production model two years later at the Berlin Motor Show. Between 1921 and 1940, the company produced a variety of opulent vehicles, now regarded as classics. The company also continued to build heavy-duty diesel engines for marine and rail purposes. Maybach had a British subsidiary, Maybach Gears Ltd., that specialised in gearboxes. In 1938, in conjunction with Dr Henry Merritt, they produced a gearbox and steering system – the 'Merritt-Maybach' – for the abortive Nuffield A.16E1

Cruiser tank The cruiser tank (sometimes called cavalry tank or fast tank) was a British tank concept of the interwar period for tanks designed as modernised armoured and mechanised cavalry, as distinguished from infantry tanks. Cruiser tanks were develop ...

design.

1940–1945

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Maybach produced the engines for most of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

s and

half-track A half-track is a civilian or military vehicle with wheels at the front for steering and continuous tracks at the back to propel the vehicle and carry most of the load. A half-track combines the soft-ground traction of a tank with the Car handl ...

s. These included almost all the production tank engines through Panzer I, II, III, IV and V, the

Tiger I The Tiger I () was a Nazi Germany, German heavy tank of World War II that began operational duty in 1942 in North African Campaign, Africa and in the Soviet Union, usually in independent German heavy tank battalion, heavy tank battalions. It g ...

and II ( Maybach HL230) and other heavy tanks: and also engines for half-tracks such as the Sd.Kfz. 251 personnel carrier and prime movers like the Sd.Kfz. 9. The engine plant was one of several industries targeted at Friedrichshafen. After WWII, the factory performed some repair work, but automotive production was never restarted, and some 20 years later, the company was renamed MTU Friedrichshafen.

1960s

purchased the company in 1960. Post-1960, the company was mainly used to make special editions of Mercedes cars in the W108 and W116 model range, which were virtually hand built. These cars however carried the Mercedes badge and serial numbers.

Rolls-Royce Power Systems Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG (formerly Tognum AG) is a German company owned by Rolls-Royce Holdings with holdings in engine manufacturing brands and facilities. The company previously traded, from 2006 to 2014, as Tognum AG. Prior to 2006, the ...

AG, based in

Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''K ...

, used to manufacture the commercial Maybach diesel engines under the MTU brand through its subsidiary MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH.

1997–2013

Daimler presented a luxury concept car at the 1997 Tokyo Motor Show. A production model based on it was introduced in two sizes – the

Maybach 57 The Maybach 57 ( chassis code W240) and 62 (chassis code V240) were the first automobile models of the Maybach brand since its revival by DaimlerChrysler AG (now Mercedes-Benz Group AG). They are derived from the Mercedes-Benz Maybach concept ca ...

and the Maybach 62, reflecting the lengths of the automobiles in decimetres. In 2005, the 57S was added, powered by a 6.0 L V12 bi-turbo engine producing and of torque, and featuring various cosmetic touches. To promote the new Maybach line, Mercedes-Benz engaged figures such as Maybach heir Ulrich Schmid-Maybach and golfer Nick Faldo to serve as

brand ambassador A brand ambassador (sometimes also called a corporate ambassador) is a person paid by an organization or company to represent its brand in a positive light, helping to increase brand awareness and sales. The brand ambassador is meant to embody the ...

s. Initially, Daimler-Chrysler predicted annual sales of 2,000 worldwide with 50 percent coming from the United States; however, these expectations never materialized. In 2007, Mercedes bought back 29 US dealers, reducing the total from 71 to 42. In 2010, only 157 Maybachs were sold worldwide, compared to 2,711 similarly priced Rolls-Royces. By the time of the announcement that the brand was to be laid back to rest, 3,000 had been sold worldwide since the brand was revived in 2002. Daimler announced in November 2011 that Maybach would cease to be a brand by 2013 and manufactured the last Maybach vehicle in December 2012. This was because of poor sales.

Cancellation

With poor sales and the heavy impact of the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

, Daimler AG undertook a complete review of the Maybach division, approaching Aston Martin to engineer and style the next generation of Maybach models along with the next generation of Lagondas. According to ''

Automotive News ''Automotive News'' is a weekly newspaper established in 1925, written for the automotive industry, predominantly for individuals corresponding with automobile manufacturers and automotive suppliers. It is based in Detroit and owned by Crain ...

'', only 44 Maybachs had been sold in the US in the first ten months of 2011. An article in '' Fortune'' noted that Mercedes had missed out on the chance to purchase Rolls-Royce and Bentley when they were up for sale in the 1990s:

"Mercedes backpedaled and decided it needed to be in the ultra-luxury business too, but it went after it in a remarkably clumsy way.

It further stated that the first Maybach models had poor driving dynamics compared to its contemporaries from Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

Mercedes took an aging S-class chassis and plopped an absurdly elongated body on it ... rather than develop a new car from the wheels up, as BMW did with Rolls-Royce, or cleverly use the underpinnings of an existing model like the Volkswagen Phaeton for a new Bentley."

Furthermore, Maybachs were never advertised as owner-driven vehicles, as the company believed that the luxury amenities would be sufficient to drive sales, and they even insisted that auto journalists (who usually test drive the vehicle) ride in the back seat. Another suggestion for Maybach's struggles was that parent Daimler had failed to differentiate it from its Mercedes-Benz brand. While all three ultra-luxury marques share platforms and engines with other luxury brands from their parent auto company, Maybachs are built alongside the Mercedes-Benz S-Class flagship sedan, whereas Rolls-Royce and Bentley are assembled in England (separate from the rest of

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

and

Volkswagen Group Volkswagen AG (), known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of passenger and commercial vehicles, motorcycles, engines and turbomachinery. Headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxon ...

's respective production plants), and thus are regarded as being more "exclusive". Furthermore, the Maybach's pedigree was virtually unknown outside of Germany, unlike its British rivals which have long enjoyed renown worldwide; indeed the 2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom's interior evokes memories of a 1930s car while the Maybach 57S's inside makes no reference to its marque's history. In November 2011, Daimler's CEO Dieter Zetsche announced that the Maybach-brand would cease to exist in 2012, making room for other models of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. The Maybach-limousines were still being sold up to the year 2013, but after that, the name "Maybach" would not be used. On 14 August 2012, parent Daimler AG announced the official discontinuation of Maybach by releasing a price sheet officially discontinuing the Maybach 57, 57S, 62, 62S and Landaulet. On 17 December 2012, the last Maybach vehicle was manufactured in Sindelfingen.

2015–present

Revival

The company announced that the line would be replaced by the next-generation of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Model W222, due for the 2014 model year, particularly the long wheelbase S-Class Pullman. An executive told a Frankfurt newspaper that "Daimler came to the conclusion that the sales chances for the Mercedes brand were better than that of Maybach."

Mercedes-Maybach

In November 2014, Daimler announced the revival of the Maybach name as a sub-brand of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W222), positioned as an upscale version akin to the more sporty

Mercedes-AMG Mercedes-AMG GmbH, commonly known as AMG (Aufrecht, Melcher, Großaspach), is the high-performance subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-Benz AG. AMG independently hires engineers and contracts with manufacturers to customize Mercedes-Benz AMG v ...

sub-brand. In anticipation of its April 2015 launch, the flagship Mercedes-Maybach S600 was unveiled at car shows in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, United States, and

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

, China, and the production model at the 2015

Geneva Motor Show The Geneva International Motor Show was an annual auto show held in March in the Swiss city of Geneva. The show was hosted at the Palexpo, a convention centre located next to the Geneva Cointrin International Airport. The Salon was organised b ...

. During the facelift, the S 500 and S 550 were redesignated S 560 and the flagship was renamed S 650. Assembled on the same Sindelfingen line used for the S-Class, the model is targeted against the Bentley Mulsanne and Rolls-Royce Phantom. At long with a wheelbase of (132.5 inches), it is approximately longer than the long-wheelbase S-Class models. The Mercedes-Maybach will be available as S500 (S550 in the US) and S600 models, with 4matic all-wheel-drive optional with the V8 engine. Acceleration is in 5.0 seconds. The base car has several colour finish options and the choice between a three-seat rear bench, or two seats reclining. Options include: air-conditioned, heated and massaging seats; heated armrests; a system to pump scented, ionised air around the cabin; and a 1540 watt Burmester 3D surround sound system with 24 speakers. Maybach S500 assembly in

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

, India, began in September 2015, making India the second country to produce a Maybach. Since September of 2020, the MBUSI plant in Vance, Alabama, has produced the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600.

Concept cars

The first Mercedes-Maybach concept car is the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6, a large two-door coupe with a fully electric drivetrain. The model was unveiled at the 2016 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

Models

Pre-war

* 1919 : Test car based on a DMG chassis * 1921 : First Maybach, shown at

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Motor Show. Featured a 5.7L inline six. * 1926 : 7L inline six, * 1929 Maybach 12: V12 precursor to DS7/8 * 1930 : Doppel-Sechs-Halbe ("half a twelve cylinder") 1930–1937 * 1930 Maybach DS7 Zeppelin: 7L V12, * 1931 : Same engine as W5, longer wheelbase. 1931–1933 * 1931 Maybach DS8 Zeppelin: 8L V12, * 1934 Maybach W6 DSG: Featuring a twin overdrive transmission system * 1935 Maybach SW35: 3.5L I6 * 1936 Maybach SW38: 3.8L I6 * 1939 Maybach SW42: 4.2L I6 * 1945 Maybach JW61: 3.8L I6 2 were the 5.7 L inline six engines built for and ordered by Spyker. Not all were purchased, and Karl had to build cars featuring the engines to offset costs. Around 1800 Maybachs were built before WWII.

Engines

* Maybach HL120 * Maybach HL116 * Maybach HL210 * Maybach HL230

Post-revival

* 2002 Maybach 57 and 62 * 2005 Maybach Exelero (prototype shown at the IAA in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

) * 2005 Maybach 57S (the S standing for Special rather than Sport) * 2006 Maybach 62S * 2007 Maybach 62 Landaulet * 2009 Maybach 57 and 62 "Zeppelin" * 2011 Maybach Guard * 2014 Mercedes-Maybach S600 * 2014 Mercedes-Maybach S400 (only for China) * 2015 Mercedes-Maybach S500/S550 (US) * 2015 Mercedes-Maybach S600 Pullman * 2016 Mercedes-Maybach S 650 Cabriolet * 2017 Mercedes-Maybach S560 * 2017 Mercedes-Maybach S650 * 2017 Mercedes-Maybach S680 (renamed S650 only for China) * 2017 Mercedes-Maybach G 650 Landaulet * 2019 Mercedes-Maybach GLS600 * 2021 Mercedes-Maybach S480 (only for China) * 2021 Mercedes-Maybach S580 * 2021 Mercedes-Maybach S680 * 2023 Mercedes-Maybach EQS680 SUV * 2023 Mercedes Maybach "Project Maybach" – Abloh collaborated with Mercedes Benz's chief designer on Project Maybach. The partnership produced two unique Maybach vehicles: a massive, solar powered roadster designed for luxury off-roading, and a reimagined S680. The roadster remains under “show car” status, but the Virgil Abloh Maybach S680 was available to purchase in April 2023. Abloh died from cancer in 2021. *2025 Mercedes-Maybach SL580 *2025 Mercedes-Maybach SL680

Sales

Daimler announced in November 2020 that it planned to double its Maybach sales, based on strong Chinese demand, where the car is used as a limousine.

References

External links

Maybach Comes to a Quiet End

Maybach Manufaktur

The Maybach Museum

A biography of Wilhelm Maybach (in German)

Technical information about Maybach engines in the ''Tiger I'' tank

Maybach Foundation

"Lockers Hold Spare Wheel Of Stream Line Auto"
''Popular Mechanics'', October 1932, a streamlined auto made in co-operation with Junkers engineers, only one built {{Authority control Aircraft engine manufacturers of Germany Car brands Car manufacturers of Germany Defunct consumer brands Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Germany Full-size vehicles German brands German companies disestablished in 2013 German companies established in 1909 Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers Luxury vehicles Mercedes-Benz Group brands and marques Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1909 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 2013