Mercedes-Benz is not short of off-road vehicles, covering just about every base from the GLA SUV right up to the chunky G-Class. Even its lower-riding sedans and wagons can be equipped with all-wheel-drive, yet the one that is possibly the best all-rounder is the E-Class All-Terrain. While this wagon does offer impressive versatility, Mercedes thought that the next step in its evolution should be to mutate it into a post-apocalyptic off-roading mutant. In a good way.

The result was the Mercedes-Benz E-Class All-Terrain 4x4², a jacked-up E-Class wagon with more than just a little attitude. It has done the rounds before, but we can now finally see it in action in a video posted by Mercedes, traversing terrain usually reserved for serious off-roaders. You may want to turn on the subtitles unless your German is up to scratch.

While Mercedes claims that it won't be building it, don't get disappointed just yet. You see, Mercedes have some form in this niche field, the AMG 6x6² and G500 4x4² are examples of some of its previous work and after a lot of positive response both ended up going into limited production. The All-Terrain 4x4², as is quite obvious from the video footage, is just as capable off-road as the most hardcore 4x4 around thanks to almost 7.8-inches of ground clearance and a fair bit of G-Class-sourced hardware.

Development engineer Jürgen Eberle believes that it could become a viable production model and while the current car features the 329hp twin-turbo V6 from the E400, we would love to see it fitted with one of the more powerful AMG engines too.

Thanks to the lack of interest in expensive wagons in the US, the E-Class Wagon is currently limited to 329-hp E400 4Matic and 603-hp E 63 S flavors here. Rumors of the standard All-Terrain models being offered stateside may even turn into reality at some point but why not go the whole hog and just start selling the All-Terrain 4x4² instead?