Soundless Scent System: Driven to Extremes

Say goodbye to the little green tree. The luxurious 2009 Maybach Zeppelin is said to be the first vehicle to feature its own fragrance atomizer. The car debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March; the fi rst fragrant models will be delivered to customers in September. The patented, soundless scent system was  developed in-house at the high-end German car company, a division of Daimler. It comes with two fragrances, one light and refreshing, the other a woody, rich scent based on precious agar wood; both were created by Givaudan. Car owners may also put their own fragrance in one of the three quickly changeable hand-blown glass vials that come with the system. The vials are inserted into a  luminous Plexiglas sphere that sits on the back console atop the air-conditioning vents. With the touch of a button, the scent is subtly diffused throughout the lambskin and wood interior. The Maybach’s scent system even takes the workings of the human sense of smell into consideration. The atomizer shuts off automatically after about 10 minutes to prevent sensory overload. The fragrance dissipates and doesn’t linger—either in the cars’ interior or on passengers’ clothing. As a 3,950 euro ($5,167 at current exchange) option on a vehicle, which costs more than 400,000 euros ($523,240), the atomizer is nothing to sneeze at.