You can't see good design. You can feel it.

From the first sketch to the model in original size: how the Mercedes-Benz design gives our next generation of city buses clarity, serenity and unmistakable character.

A city bus is a workplace, a business card for transport companies and part of the cityscape. How do you design a vehicle that meets all these requirements and still looks coherent for many years to come? For more than two years, the design team at Daimler Buses searched for answers for our next generation of city buses. A journey from the first sketch to the full-size model.

A city bus has to work every day, in all weathers, overlaying every route. Passengers get in without thinking about it. The drivers spend their working day here. And the transport company must be able to rely on it. For Stefan Handt, Head of Design at Daimler Buses, good design starts here. "Good design is invisible. It just has to work," he says.

Invisible does not mean arbitrary. Design should take people’s fears away and show what the brand stands for. At Mercedes-Benz this means: robustness and reliability, safety and comfort. There is also a responsibility that goes beyond the individual vehicle. A city bus has been shaping the roads for many years. Anyone who designs it designs a piece of public space. The team’s answer to these challenges is clarity: perfect surfaces, logical lines and a calm, timeless form.

At the beginning was a mood board with pictures, shapes and associations. Based on this, the team around Designchef Handt developed a guiding theme: a tube in different lengths, completed by two end pieces. Transferred to the city bus, this means that the passenger compartment follows its function. Character is given to the vehicle above all at the front and rear. Sticking to this basic idea once found and developing it further instead of always starting from scratch is decisive. “This is the only way to create a coherent design down to the last detail.”

The first rough sketches held the basic idea. In the computer, it took on the form of a three-dimensional data model, and with the help of virtual reality glasses, the digital model could be walked around virtually. But these tools have limits. How light and shadow run across a surface is often only apparent on the real object. Therefore, the data resulted in a 1:1 scale clay model, a full-size model made of industrial plasticine. “The effort required for a full-size model is enormous,” says Handt. “But it’s worth it.”

The front shows what the strategy of clarity looks like. In the centre is the Mercedes star, framed by the implied radiator grille. In addition to the central star, the laurel badge is the characteristic feature of a genuine Mercedes-Benz. On the sides, three plastic light strips each form a new signature for the daytime running lights, position lights and turn signals, inspired by the striking rear lamps of the W123 passenger car model series. This means that the bus remains recognisable as a Mercedes-Benz even with a covered star.

Where the tube meets the front and rear, the designers have come up with something special. Narrow glass strips protrude from the window surfaces and frame the passenger compartment from the roof to the underbody. “Abbraccio”, Italian for hug, they call this element. The wheel arches are slightly reminiscent of those of the current eCitaro, but have an even more plastic design and are also identical at the front and rear - this simplifies replacement in the event of damage.

The design team paid the same attention to the rear as to the front. For good reason, as Handt explains: “In urban traffic, other road users often see the rear end longer than the front end.” Newly developed, patented LED lights with six elongated light surfaces for tail lights, brake lights and turn signals characterise the light graphics at the rear. The designers also designed the roof. “The roof is the fifth face of the bus,” says Handt. This can be seen, for example, in the new air conditioning system, whose shape is strongly reminiscent of the architecture of a power plant.

In the interior, the team set an ambitious objective: to develop the world’s best driver cockpit. The driver’s workplace is a separate space, contrasting in colour and separated from the passenger compartment by a light barrier. There is order and clarity here. The instrument panel is as compact as possible, and adjusted heights improve the field of vision. Two 12-inch displays bundle driving data and digital operation where the work processes require it, ergonomically arranged switches offer maximum operating comfort.

With a slight swing, the instrument panel and driver’s door lead the passengers past the driver’s seat into a bright, transparent interior. Few, simple shapes repeat themselves. All grab bars are the same, black pillar claddings make the windows appear as a calm surface. Technology doesn't have to be hidden away, material and construction remain visible. The value has a practical side effect: passengers treat a bus that looks high-quality with more care.

Its world premiere will be celebrated by our next generation of city buses in October 2027 at Busworld Europe in Brussels.