Our spy shots of the next-generation Mercedes-Benz E-Class suggest that what's going to happen next with that car is what happened with the GLC over the summer: an end to the weird, soap bar-looking EQ electric models and an alignment with the combustion models.

"If you were told this was the next-gen combustion GLC, you would say 'yes, it's the next logical step: it looks like a GLC'," boss Ola Källenius said of Mercedes' new electric SUV last month. And I think it's now safe to assume that Mercedes' next E-Class-sized electric executive saloon will be very much integrated into the range as an identifiable E-Class variant too.

Internal documents apparently describe the EQE replacement as having an "iconic E-Class three-box design", with a "very status-oriented wheelbase offering maximum space and comfort". In other words, it will be a big Merc.

This strikes me as an inherently sensible move. Mercedes' ultra-streamlined EQ EVs haven't achieved the same resonance as its traditional-looking ICE cars. The E-Class, like the S-Class and to a lesser extent the SUVs, have such a strong reputation that they would be barmy not to tap into it.

In EQ, Mercedes created a new brand that didn't outwardly signal the values that existing models had spent - by individual model line - decades establishing. The first unibody Ponton-series Mercedes, whose lineage can be drawn directly to the modern E-Class, arrived in 1953. Why would one decide that reputation was no longer important?