Mercedes 2008 Annual Report Download - page 110

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A tradition of innovation. The founders of our company, Gott-
lieb Daimler and Carl Benz, ushered in the age of the automobile
with their pioneering inventions. Ever since then, our company
has set world standards again and again through its countless
innovations. We will continue to do so also in the future. Our
researchers anticipate trends, customers’ wishes and the require-
ments of tomorrow’s mobility, while our development engineers
implement these ideas in products that are ready for series pro-
duction.
Research and development play a key role at Daimler; we invest-
ed a total of €4.4 billion in research and development in 2008
(2007: €4.1 billion). At the end of 2008, some 18,900 men and
women were employed at Corporate Research and the devel-
opment departments of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Daimler Trucks,
Mercedes-Benz Vans, and Daimler Buses (2007: 18,000). The
Group’s innovative power is demonstrated by our 2,400 inventions
registered in 2008, which resulted in more than 1,800 patent
applications. Daimler has a total of nearly 22,000 patents and a
broad spectrum of trade marks and protected designs.
Impressive solutions for safe, customized, and sustainable
mobility. For our research and development work, we have
defined three main areas whose interaction promises to yield
impressive solutions for safe and sustainable future mobility:
–Personalization. Mobility needs are becoming increasingly
diverse and personal. We offer our customers products that,
depending on their use and demand profiles, are optimally tuned
to meet their personal requirements. This is why we are devel-
oping customer-oriented vehicle concepts with modular drive
technologies.
– The vision of accident-free driving. Whether for a car, truck,
bus or van — safety has always been one of our top priorities.
In order to avoid accidents or to minimize their impact, we
develop holistic concepts that intelligently combine active and
passive safety and assistance systems (see page 108).
– Sustainable mobility. On the road to a future-oriented mobili-
ty that is friendly to human beings and the environment, we
are working on numerous key measures. Our aim is to make our
products as environmentally compatible as possible and in
particular to continue effectively reducing fuel consumption and
all of the relevant emissions throughout a vehicle’s entire life-
cycle.
Roadmap to sustainable mobility. We believe that the most
promising route to the sustainable mobility of the future is the
needs-based use of intelligent modular technologies. Such
technologies will enable us to respond to the individual needs of
our customers and to develop customized solutions. The diverse
requirements to be fulfilled by the mobility of the future will result
in varying solutions, depending on whether individual mobility
is required in long-distance transport, regional transport or city
traffic. For driving in congested urban areas, the development
of electric vehicles is becoming increasingly significant. We there-
fore assume that in the future we will have a mix of different
drive systems comprising three elements. They are part of our
road map toward sustainable mobility:
1. Optimization of vehicles by means of ultramodern combustion
engines — for example, via downsizing, supercharging, direct
fuel injection, and BLUETEC, as well as the targeted optimiza-
tion of the vehicles themselves.
2. Further increases in efficiency through needs-oriented hybridiza-
tion in a variety of development stages — from the start-stop
function to fully electric driving. Starting in 2009, we will launch
at least one new hybrid model every year, including diesel
hybrids using our clean BLUETEC technology.
3. Zero-emission driving with fuel cells and battery power. Today,
all-electric vehicles offer many advantages, especially in
congested city centers. They are quiet and highly efficient and
produce no local emissions. Daimler is currently the automaker
with the world’s largest fleet of fuel-cell vehicles in use with
customers, as well as the largest fleet of battery-powered vehi-
cles, which is operating in London.
In addition, we support the development, production, and distrib-
ution of clean fuels and energy sources for zero-emission driving.
We believe the greatest potential for clean fuels for combustion
engines lies in second-generation biofuels — biomass-to-liquid,
or BTL (SunDiesel).
We are effectively implementing our roadmap to sustainable mobil-
ity through the model strategies “Road to the Future” for pas-
senger cars and “Shaping Future Transportation” for commercial
vehicles.
Road to the Future. At the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2007, as
part of its “Road to the Future” initiative, Mercedes-Benz present-
ed economical and environmentally friendly premium cars with
the qualities that are typical of the brand — top levels of safety,
comfort, and driving pleasure. Many of the vehicles and techno-
logies that were presented there are already on the road today.
Our engineers have developed individual modular solutions that
can be used in all production series:
Innovation, Safety and the Environment. €4.4 billion invested in
research and development. Progress along the path to sustainable
mobility. Innovations for greater safety. A holistic approach to
reducing all emissions.