In recent years, Mercedes-Benz has dabbled in a few electric sports car projects. We still remember fondly, for instance, the lurid and stupendously fast SLS AMG Electric Drive that entered limited production not so long ago. There are also no shortage of rumors that Mercedes has plenty of electric cars in the pipelines that might be ready to take the fight to Tesla soon. However, if we were sitting in a position of authority on the Mercedes-Benz board, we'd passionately make a case for this electric sports car concept to be given the green light.

Dubbed by creator Antonio Paglia the ELK (a rather unfortunate name choice, considering Mercedes' infamous history with the "Elk test" safety test maneuver), this new project is purely an exterior design experiment. That means Paglia hasn't provided any concrete performance or output stats. However, that doesn't matter too much given a racing version of the ELK has also been toyed with in the renders. It's safe to assume there's plenty of kilowatts underneath that bodywork. Plus, the ELK looks (in our eyes, at least) truly extraordinary, and is certainly a breath of fresh air in comparison with Mercedes' current Russian Doll approach to car design.

We have no idea how far along Mercedes is into its electric car development program. We haven't seen any test mules spied in the wild, so we have no idea if such projects have even reached the working prototype phase. However, if it's still toying with design ideas and is wanting some inspiration, we reckon it should give Antonio Paglia a call. If a future electric Mercedes sports car looks even half as exciting as this ELK, we're sure there'll be plenty of gearheads out there who'll fall in love with its looks in a heartbeat.