Mercedes 2008 Annual Report Download - page 65

Management Report|Profitability |61
Daimler’s road map to sustainable mobility
Optimizing our vehicles
with modern conventional
powertrains
Hybridization for further
increase in efficiency
Emission-free driving
with fuel cells and battery
vehicles
Clean fuels for internal combustion engines
Energy for the future
Energy sources for emission-free driving
Research and development
18,900 employees in research and development departments.
Daimler has always seen itself as a pioneer and as a driver of
innovation in the automotive industry, which is why research and
development play such an important role at the Group. Our
researchers anticipate trends, customers’ wishes, and the require-
ments placed on the mobility of the future, which are then
effectively implemented in series products by our development
engineers. Our goal is to provide tailored solutions for needs-
oriented, safe and sustainable mobility. Key factors for the market
success of our products are the expertise, creativity and motiva-
tion of our employees in research and development (see page 106).
At the end of the year 2008, 18,900 persons were employed in
Daimler’s research and development departments around the
world (2007: 18,000). Of that total, 11,600 persons were employed
at Group Research & Development Mercedes-Benz Cars (2007:
11,000), 5,300 at the Daimler Trucks division (2007: 5,200), and
1,900 at the Mercedes-Benz Vans and Daimler Buses units
(2007: 1,800). More than 3,600 research and development person-
nel were employed at locations outside Germany (2007: 3,700).
Daimler newly registered a total of 1,807 patents in 2008
(2007: 1,523), mainly in the fields of drive systems and safety.
We further improved the efficiency and quality of our research
and development work throughout the Group during the year
under review, so that we can continue meeting the challenge of
increasingly tough competition in the automotive industry with
pioneering innovations in the future.
High level of research and development expenditure.
Daimler’s expenditure for research and development increased
to €4.4 billion in 2008 (2007: €4.1 billion). Of the total R&D
expenditure, we capitalized development costs in an amount of
€1.4 billion (2007: €1.0 billion), in accordance with IFRS
accounting principles. One of the main areas of our work was the
development of new, particularly fuel-efficient and environ-
mentally friendly drive technologies, in line with our roadmap for
sustainable mobility. In order to further reduce CO2emissions
and to be able to supply vehicles that fulfill future needs, we were
occupied both with the optimization of conventional drive
technologies and the reduction of vehicle weight, as well as with
alternative drive systems such as fuel cells and electric vehicles.
Another focus is on new safety technologies: In the context of our
vision of accident-free driving, we are pursuing the goal of
avoiding accidents as far as possible and of ameliorating the
consequences of any accidents that might still occur
(see page 108).
The most important projects at Mercedes-Benz Cars were the
successor models for the E-Class, the CLK-Class and the
A-/B-Class, as well as new-generation engines and alternative
drive systems. In total, we increased research and development
expenditure at Mercedes-Benz Cars from €2.7 billion in 2007 to
€3.0 billion last year. Daimler Trucks spent €1.0 billion on
research and development (2007: €1.0 billion). The main areas
there were new engines for medium and heavy-duty trucks, a
new light-duty truck and a new, globally used truck platform, to be
gradually launched around the world as of the year 2011. The focus
of R&D expenditure at Mercedes-Benz Vans was on the further
development of engines to fulfill future emission regulations. The
Daimler Buses unit concentrated its development activities on
new products and alternative drive systems such as diesel hybrid
and fuel cells.