Surprise! Mercedes has filled its new GLB with much (optional) SCREEN

Mercedes-Benz has revealed the first official imagery of its upcoming new GLB SUV. Well, parts of it, anyway. The parts covered in ice and snow expertly masking the design details? Winter testing. The parts covered in screen and sumptuous tan leather? That’ll be the new cabin.

It marks a bit of a departure from the old GLB, and very much sits within NewMerc’s wheelhouse of filling everything with as much screen real estate as possible. Note: the car shown here gets the optional full length ‘floating’ Hyperscreen.

Merc reckons this reduces the interior design philosophy to “the essentials and conveys a state of the art, elegant ambience”. We say: don’t smear it with your crisp covered fingers.

There’s some physical switchgear, a pair of circular vents at either end of the dash, and a standard fit panoramic roof. You can change the transparency of said roof from clear to ‘milky’ (optionally), though TopGear.com notes the conspicuous absence of a 'chocolatey' version. You can even illuminate it with the glare of a thousand Mercedes stars. Or at least a fair few of them.

Elsewhere we know the new GLB will be available as a five or seven seater, with “noticeably more headroom” than was previously offered. Indeed, the third row is also apparently easier to get into, which is nice. As is the rather delightful tan leather interior shown here.

There’s plenty of digital help onboard, including a virtual assistant with “various emotionally responsive avatars” powered by AI – nope, you’re terrified – along with a phalanx of radars and sensors to detect everything from the car in front to the dilation of your pupils. Probably.

You’ll see the first official imagery of the production ready, non-snowy Mercedes-Benz GLB on 8 December.