On Saturday, 17 October, a child climbed into the driver's seat of a Mercedes-Benz VLE shown on the German brand's stand at the Paris motor show, held at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in hall 5. Reports differ on the details: Mediafax gives the child's age as 12 and says a second child of the same age was also in the car, while other outlets mention two children without giving ages. The car went into reverse, rolled backwards and hit a decorative panel behind the stand, damaging it. Social media images show the car stopped against the structure while a Mercedes employee approaches the occupants and asks the child to get out. The footage does not show the moments before the impact, so what the child did and how the car was put in motion cannot yet be determined.
The VLE is the electric MPV built at Mercedes-Benz's plant in Vitoria, Spain, and Ziare describes it as the successor to the V-Class. According to Mercedes-Benz, the standard version is 5.3 metres long, can be configured with up to eight seats and offers a range of more than 700 kilometres. The prices in the reports vary: ProTV cites a base price of about 82,000 euros, SAPO's headline gives 88,000 euros, and Ziare says premium equipment takes the price up to 130,000 euros. Exhibition cars are normally set up so visitors can explore the interior without being able to move them, and this one was not stopped. Which immobilisation devices were active, whether the brake pedal was pressed and how reverse was selected are all still unknown. Because the car is electric, it made little noise when it started, which ProTV and SAPO both point out. SAPO notes that nothing so far shows a technical fault or a safety system that failed.
Mercedes-Benz France says it is treating the incident seriously and has started an internal investigation to establish how the car began to move. It has not yet given a definitive explanation, and Libertatea and Ziare report that it has no certainty yet about the cause. The car was taken off the stand and was not on display on Sunday, 18 October, the last day of the show. Organisers had to rebuild the damaged decor. Mediafax reports that the car suffered only light damage.
Mediafax recalls that a 12-year-old started an electric SUV presented by the Chinese manufacturer Base Auto at an earlier Paris motor show in 2012. The key had been left in the car, and the child engaged reverse and hit the stand of a neighbouring exhibitor. A worker there was lightly injured in the foot and received medical treatment. Mediafax says the incident renews the need for strict measures to secure exhibition cars that children can reach.
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A child in the driver's seat of a Mercedes-Benz VLE on display at the Paris Motor Show on Saturday, 17 October, put the electric MPV into reverse, and it struck a decorative panel. No one was hurt, and Mercedes-Benz France has opened an internal investigation into how the car could move.
AI text based on reports by LaVanguardia, SAPO, Stirile ProTV and other publishers. Published .