News

Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius says touchscreens in cars could continue to grow in the future - but he believes the industry might have reached peak "low button".

As with many of its rivals, the Stuttgart firm's cars have focused on introducing large touchscreens in recent years at the expense of physical buttons.

The tri-screen MBUX Hyperscreen can measure up to 1410mm wide in some cars, making it the largest such display in any production car.

There have been complaints about the increasing number of controls moved from physical switches to the screen.

However, while Källenius acknowledged such concerns, he said: "We spend countless hours on UI [user interface]. I spend hours every year discussing this with our engineers and we joke it needs to be so easy that either a five-year-old kid or a Mercedes board member can use it. That is the hurdle, and once you familiarise yourself with it, it becomes second nature."

Källenius also cited efforts to improve voice control systems but conceded "the industry as a whole might have gone a little bit too far" towards digital controls.

He noted Mercedes has now introduced physical controls on the steering wheels in its cars and said: "Sometimes you get a bit ahead of yourself and do technology for the sake of technology and maybe forget a little bit about the customer. So from now on, you will see us reintroduce the most sensible buttons."

Asked if that meant the car industry had reached 'peak screen', Källenius said: "I don't know if we're at peak screen, but we're at low button."

The BYD Ti7 has gone on sale in the UK as the Chinese brand's biggest model, priced from £47,995.

Sized between the 110 and 130 variants of the rival Land Rover Defender, it undercuts the British 4x4 and the petrol-engined Mercedes-Benz GLC and BMW X3.

The Ti7 will be the first UK-bound car to use the Chinese brand’s new, performance-focused ‘DM-p’ plug-in-hybrid powertrain.

This comprises a turbocharged 1.5-litre petrol engine, two electric motors (one per axle) and a 35.6kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack.

The set-up produces a combined 402bhp, giving a 0-62mph time of 4.8sec and an electric-only range of 74 miles. 

The Ti7's chunky styling evokes classical 4x4s such as the Defender and Toyota Land Cruiser, with bluff edges to the design and a spare wheel carrier mounted on the boot.

It will be sold in the UK under the BYD brand, but it is in effect a larger sibling of the Denza Bao 5 that's also due to arrive here later this year.

In their native China, both the Bao 5 and Ti7 are sold by BYD’s upmarket, youth-focused Fangchengbao brand.

Asked why the Ti7 isn't being sold as a Denza, a spokesperson for BYD UK previously told Autocar that the differentiation is because the body-on-frame Bao 5 was concevied as an off-roader, while the monocoque Ti7 is meant for buyers who would like rugged styling but may not need off-road capabilities. 

In China, the Ti7 is also offered with a battery-electric powertrain compatible with BYD’s ‘Flash’ chargers, which are capable of delivering up to 1500kW.

A network of 300 such chargers is due to be built in the UK this year to support the launch of the Denza Z9 GT, but it remains to be seen whether the fully electric Ti7 will also come here.

Customer deliveries of the Ti7 will begin in January.