[moralfibre]

The 66th IAA (Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung) most commonly known as the Frankfurt motor show was held at Messe Frankfurt starting on 15th September 2015. Originally the IAA held their first exhibition 115 years ago in 1897 when 8 motor vehicles were displayed at a hotel in Berlin. In 1991, the show was subdivided between commercial and passenger segments being hosted on alternate years. While the passenger segments continued to be showcased at Frankfurt, the commercial vehicle display moved to Hannover, Germany. The IAA is organised and hosted by VDA: Verband der Automobilindustrie; an association of 600 automobile and component manufacturers from Germany.

The 2015 event was spread across roughly 578,000 square feet of the Messe Frankfurt. A total of 400 exhibitors were displaying their products across 11 large halls. The oldest of the halls is the Festhalle constructed in 1909 occupied by Mercedes for the show. The rest of the halls were built around the mid-1980s. Hall #11 is the newest building at Frankfurt fair grounds where BMW setup their shop for the show.

Overall the theme at the 2015 IAA was for plugin hybrids and connected cars. Almost all car manufacturers had a dedicated section and prominently displayed their plugin hybrid options. Daimler AG, VW AG and BMW AG were the ones that dominated the exhibition space with a dedicated building space for their auto group vehicles while most others shared floor space with other manufacturers. Germany is a station wagon loving country. One in every three cars is a station wagon. It is not odd to see almost every manufacturer extending their platform to have a station wagon offering. At the IAA, barring a few, almost every manufacturer did give station wagons as much importance.

IAA Location map:

[moralfibre]

150 employees worked for a year on conceptualizing and executing Mercedes-Benz's display at the Festhalle (festival hall) spread across 9000 square meters. 850 tons of steel, 230km of cabling along with 4500 lights made up the grand showcase for Mercedes-Benz's 60 vehicle display.

Mercedes-Benz's "Concept - IAA: digital transformer" (Intelligent Aerodynamic Mobile) was the main feature of the showcase. The concept IAA continues on the design line of the S-class and S-class coupe on the inside. New touch-based functions provide an idea on what the interior of the business saloon might look like in the future.

The Concept IAA carries a coefficient of drag value of 0.19, a record feat! The vehicle automatically switches from design mode to aerodynamic mode upon hitting a speed of 80km/h or on demand just at the touch of a button. To aid aerodynamics, the front flaps in the bumper extend by 25mm to the front and 20mm to the rear, improving the air flow around the front end and front wheel arches. The active rims alter their deep dish shape from 55mm to zero. A louvre in the front bumper moves 60mm to the rear to improve underbody flow. Eight segments extend at the rear increasing the length by up to 390mm.

The "Concept IAA" is 5040 millimetres long (5430 mm in aerodynamic mode), 1995 mm wide and 1305 mm high. Its wheelbase measures 2975 mm, and the front/rear track widths are 1710 and 1770 mm respectively.The showcar was powered by a petrol / plug-in hybrid motor pumping out a decent 279hp. It achieves a top speed of 250km/h (electronically limited). When tested in aerodynamic mode, the concept car manages an all-electric range of 66 kilometers.

Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG presenting the Concept IAA:

A look from the front three quarters, notice the wheels in normal mode:

From the front:

Rear three quarters:

Rear end:

See the the tail lamp surround? That's where the aerodynamic flaps extend from:

Concept IAA neatly engraved along with a useful QR code:

Interiors:

Interiors:

The wheels that extend out from their deep dish design:

Mercedes Benz aims to leverage digitization across their process chains from R&D to manufacturing to sales and marketing. The Concept IAA relied heavily on digitization across the globe for its development:



The Mercedes F 015 that was revealed in early 2015:

Mercedes' Cambot:

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The Mercedes display at the Festhalle was preceded by dozens of Smart cars in various avatars.

Smart's car2go avatar:

A superb looking safety car:

The bare monocoque shell of the Smart:

Smart's customisation options:

The small engine and gearbox of the Smart:

The Mercedes AMG GT, the same car that leads the pack at Formula 1:

What's under the AMG GT?

The MV Agusta F3 800 painted in AMG exclusive Solarbeam colour gives company to the AMG GT:

The Mercedes AMG GT3:

Mercedes AMG Vision GT

The entrance to the Mercedes Benz hall was manned by the mighty G500:

The G500:

SL500:

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CLS 350d Shooting Brake:

The E220d Coupe:

Mighty Maybach:

The S500 4Matic coupe:

S500e Plug-in Hybrid:

The GLC 350e 4Matic:

The GLC Coupe 2015:

Disclaimer: Mercedes invited Team-BHP for the Frankfurt Auto Show. They covered all the travel expenses for this event.

[Aditya]

Nice coverage moralfibre. The Frankfurt Motor Show is legendary!

Being Merc's "home show", you are sure to get to see some of the company's finest works. The concept IAA's styling is not to my liking, but the technology is mind-blowing!

I was not a huge fan of the AMG GT's styling to start with. However, it has started to grow on me. The The E-Class is an all-time favourite and the S500 coupe is just stunning!

However, if I was to take one car home from this show, it would be that blue G500 - legendary!

By the way, do they use that Smart pace car at any racing event or is it just a show piece? I see a Hungaroring sticker on it.