Inside Mercedes-Benz's New Studio in Gurugram
Where the Tiramisu Comes with a G-Wagen Reference, and that is just the beginning of a new kind of brand experience
The Mercedes-Benz Studio, which has just opened at DLF One Horizon Centre in Gurugram, is India's first Mercedes-Benz experience outlet – and it isn't really a showroom, whatever the badge on the door might suggest. Mercedes-Benz Studios are inner-city brand spaces across 14 cities and four continents, from Copenhagen to Tokyo to Munich, and the idea seems to be less "come and buy a car" and more "come and hang around near one." You don't need to be shopping for a Mercedes, or even particularly want one, to justify walking in. That's rather the point of the place.
Mercedes-Benz Studio x Lavonne Café
Which is fortunate, because the two things, I feel, most people will end up talking about have nothing to do with horsepower. The first is Lavonne Café, run by the Lavonne Academy of Baking Science, which has curated a menu exclusively for this space – and gone to delightful lengths to tie every dessert back to the brand. The tiramisu is the standout: dusted, ridged, and shaped to look exactly like the spare wheel cover on a G-Wagen. It's a strange thing to eat something that references automotive spare-parts design, but it works, and it's very good tiramisu too.
Photos taken by Raj Patil
The second is the wall of Lego artwork inside – genuinely well done, and the sort of thing that had every car enthusiast and every Lego enthusiast in the room stop mid-sentence to look properly.
Concept AMG GTXX, e-bikes, Adidas merchandise and more
For those who do want the metal, there's plenty. The CONCEPT AMG GT XX is on display, in India for the first time — three axial-flux motors, 1,357 bhp, a top speed past 360kmph, and a drag coefficient of 0.198, which is the kind of number that makes you re-check what a drag coefficient normally looks like. There's also the India launch of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team range of e-bikes, built with EMotorad — City, Track and Rallye editions, priced from ₹4.20 lakh to ₹7.60 lakh, each with a 250W hub motor, a 5.5-inch display, and a helmet thrown in. Deliveries begin mid-September. There's a rack of Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS x Adidas merchandise too, and a proper test-drive desk for anyone who walked in for dessert and left wanting a star.
It’s here for 3 months
The catch is that none of it is sticking around. The Studio is here for three months only, after which – well we aren’t told what happens after that, but it possibly depends on the interest it generates. Maybe it will continue to be here or pop up somewhere else. Regardless, it’s worth the drive to Gurugram while it lasts, even if only for the desserts and coffee.
