text: Mercedes-Benz is tapping into the popularity of ultra-luxurious all-terrain vehicles, with a new Maybach SUV that can ferry passengers over desert dunes with an open top and thermal cupholders. 
   
   The Mercedes-Maybach G-Class 650, shown at the Geneva auto show, will be the world’s most expensive sport utility vehicle with a price of about $500,000. It’s Daimler AG’s latest extension of the top-of-the-line Maybach marque that it resurrected amid surging demand for higher-end models. Limited to a run of 99, the SUV will have a V12 engine and a landaulet style, with a front row that’s covered and a retractable fabric roof in the back. 
   
   The Mercedes-Maybach G650 Landaulet in Geneva on March 8. Photographer: Luke Macgregor/Bloomberg 
   
   “This car meets the highest demands for luxury and yet still has all the elements that make the G-Class a real off-roader,” said Gunner Guethenke, who heads Mercedes’s SUV business. Customers who buy the marque’s G-Class -- the segment is named for Gelaendewagen, the German term for all-terrain vehicles -- are looking for something “unique,” he said. 
   
   Under pressure to foot the soaring bill of developing electric cars, autonomous-driving features and ride-sharing platforms, Daimler is more aggressively targeting ultra-wealthy customers with high-margin models on the one hand, while also adding more affordable cars that sell in large volumes. That strategy helped Mercedes unseat rival BMW AG as the world’s best-selling luxury marque last year and allowed Daimler to boost its research and development budget by almost a quarter. 
   
   After struggling for years to sustain a niche for Maybach, Mercedes revived the 1930’s-era sub-brand in 2014 and has since expanded it with more opulent and spacious adaptations of popular models, such as convertible and three-row stretch limousine versions of the Mercedes S-Class sedan. 
   
   The Maybach G650, which will test customers’ appetite for a full-production SUV from that marque, will have an electric -- and dimmable -- glass partition to separate passengers from the driver, retractable footrests and folding tables stashed in the middle console. To master truly rugged terrains, the vehicle is positioned almost half a meter (1.6 feet) above the ground. It’ll be available for sale after September. 
   
   Exotic Versions 
   
   Daimler isn’t alone in chasing after the lucrative cash cow of luxury SUVS. Volkswagen AG’s Bentley marque introduced the $229,100 Bentayga last year, currently the industry’s priciest off-roader in regular production. BMW’s Rolls-Royce is set to release its first 4x4 conveyance with an anticipated price tag of more than $400,000 next year. 
   
   The boxy G-Class has been around since 1979. With a rugged exterior that’s reminiscent of Land Rover’s now discontinued Defender, the iconic car is Stuttgart-based Daimler’s most expensive passenger vehicle, priced from $122,400. Production last year surpassed 20,000 units for the first time. 
   
   Mercedes has a history of launching exotic versions of the G-Class. There’s a sporty version sold by the performance-focused AMG sub-brand, which makes up half of all sales. The G63 AMG 6x6, a three-axle show car unveiled in 2013, had a pick-up load area behind a cabin that housed four electrically adjustable, heated and ventilated individual seats. Almost 200 of the 379,000-euro car were built. 
   
   The carmaker “has already pushed the boundaries pretty far with the standard G-Class,” said Ian Fletcher, a London-based analyst with forecaster IHS Automotive. “Every time it does, customers just seem to lap it up.” 
   
   Read our complete coverage of the 2017 Geneva Motor Show. ||||| You read that model designation correctly: The team working under Dr. Gunnar Güthenke, CEO of Mercedes-Benz G (yep, the Geländewagen platform has its very own CEO), started out with a basic G-wagen, took the portal axles of the ultra-aggressive 4×4² version, stuffed the G65 AMG’s twin-turbocharged V-12 under the boxy hood, stretched the wheelbase by 22.8 inches, and added the “first-class” rear seats from the Mercedes-Maybach S-class. For good measure, the rear portion of the standard fixed roof has been replaced by a power-operated fabric top (last available nearly four years ago). Sure, it’s a parts-bin production—but using only parts from the shelf above the top shelf. Cars don’t get much more extreme. Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche reacted with enthusiasm when he first saw the project and jacked up the production target, originally planned to be minuscule, to 99 units. ||||| Off-road driving is set to become more luxurious—and expensive—than ever before, thanks to the new Mercedes-Benz Maybach SUV unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show. 
   
   Passengers aboard the V12-powered Mercedes-Maybach G-Class 650 will enjoy massages from designer leather chairs, warm drinks courtesy of thermal cup holders and a sunroof that opens to reveal the great outdoors, Bloomberg reports. 
   
   All that pampering won’t come cheap, though. At $500,000, the 99 units parent company Daimler AG ddaif plans to roll out will be the most expensive sports utility vehicles ever produced. 
   
   These extravagant gas-guzzlers also represent a Faustian pact for the automaker: by targeting ultra-rich customers with high-margin models such as the Maybach, Bloomberg suggests, Mercedes is able to bankroll the development of electric cars, autonomous-driving features and ride-sharing platforms. 
   
   For more on the Geneva Auto Show, see Fortune’s video: 
   
   So far, the strategy is working. Last year Mercedes surpassed BMW bmwyy as the world’s best-selling luxury marque, allowing Daimler to step-up its research and development budget by almost a quarter. ||||| Oh, the Maybach brand! Remember when Mercedes-Benz relaunched it as its Rolls-Royce in 2002, only to lose a ton of money because seemingly nobody cared? Well, after the Maybach 57 and 62 were both killed off in 2012, Mercedes gave it another go, bringing the name back in 2015 as a sub-brand positioned above the top of the Mercedes range. And now, Daimler says one in every ten vehicles sold in the S-Class segment wears a Mercedes-Maybach badge. That's not bad, given that Maybach only offered variants of the S-Class sedan and the S 650 cabrio ... up until the arrival of this: the G 650 Landaulet. 
   
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   The last time a Maybach was this capable off-road, Germany was invading Poland, but this G 650 Landaulet is more of a toy than a tank. Mercedes quietly discontinued the open-top G Wagen roughly three years ago, and while the AMG G63 6x6 was an absolute masterpiece, it only had a twin-turbo V8 under the hood, where clearly there's room for four more cylinders. Therefore, humanity needed a long-wheelbase version with an electric soft-top and a twin-turbo V12. Frankly, it was the logical step forward. 
   
   The 22.75 inches added to the wheelbase (now 135 inches) allowed Mercedes to fit the G 65 Landaulet with individual rear captain's chairs, wrapped in the finest calf leather and able to fully recline. The occupants are held gently in place on any terrain by inflatable air chambers, while heated massage programs take care of their tense muscles. It's S-Class time in the G, and if the party gets even wilder, the electrically operated glass partition can be changed from transparent to opaque at the press of a button: 
   
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   While the heated and cooled cupholders, the fancy seats, the premium stereo, the high-resolution displays and the entire open top experience all sound fun, it's not like the G65 Landaulet's driver will get bored. He or she will have 630 horsepower and 737 ft.-lb. of torque to play with, and 17.7 inches of ground clearance thanks to the portal axles. Like all G Wagens, this open-top bruiser has three locking differentials and a shift-on-the-fly low range. And let's not forget about the side pipes—the G 65 Landaulet is a riot front, rear, and on both sides. 
   
   Limited to just 99 units, production starts in Graz, Austria this autumn. If you can't wait that long, go and spec a private jet while you wait—because while Mercedes hasn't announced a price, we're assuming it'll be even more costly than the $500,000-plus G 63 AMG 6x6. 
   
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   Cool? Sure. But you know what's even cooler? The frozen 2018 G Wagen:
target: – If you'd like your passengers to be able to sip from silver champagne flutes in comfort while being transported across rugged terrain—and you have at least $500,000 to spare—look no further than the Mercedes-Maybach G-Class 650 Landaulet. The ultra-high-end SUV, described by Road and Track as the ideal vehicle for the world's extravagant dictators, was introduced at the Geneva auto show as the latest addition to parent company Daimler AG's luxury Maybach brand. Only 99 of them will ever be made, and while the final price tag hasn't been settled, it is expected to be the most expensive SUV ever produced, Fortune reports. With features like massage seats and thermal cup holders, "this car meets the highest demands for luxury and yet still has all the elements that make the G-Class a real off-roader," Mercedes SUV chief Gunner Guethenke tells Bloomberg, which notes that the company may be trying to offset the costs of developing electric cars and self-driving vehicles with its top-end ventures. So how does it handle? Car and Driver took the "most over-the-top vehicle imaginable" for a spin and found that "craggy rocks, nasty holes, and muddy swampy bogs are simply nonissues," and while speed is not the primary goal, "if the order arrives from the rear seat, the chauffeur can hurl it forward with gusto."