Mercedes 2009 Annual Report Download - page 141

Sustainability | Innovation, Safety and the Environment |137
– BLUETEC. Thanks to BLUETEC, Daimler can offer its customers
the world’s cleanest diesel engines for cars and commercial
vehicles. The combination of inner-engine measures to reduce
emissions and the treatment of exhaust gases makes diesel
drive systems as clean as gasoline engines.
– BlueHYBRID. Gasoline hybrid technologies represent another
possibility for reducing fuel consumption, since summer 2009 in
the S 400 HYBRID for example, the world’s first series-produced
car with hybrid drive and lithium-ion batteries.
– BLUETEC HYBRID. Clean diesel hybrid technology currently
offers the greatest potential for reducing fuel consumption in
the top automobile segments.
– DIESOTTO. This innovative combustion engine concept, which
we first presented in the F 700 research vehicle, is as eco-
nomical as a diesel engine and as clean as a gasoline engine.
– Battery-powered electric drive systems. Since the end of 2009,
we have been producing the smart fortwo electric drive, which
is the first locally emission-free vehicle with battery drive to be
manufactured under series-production conditions.
– Electric drive with fuel cells. With more than 100 test vehicles
that have clocked up approximately 4.5 million kilometers
to date, Daimler has the world’s largest and most stringently
tested fleet of fuel-cell vehicles. Mercedes-Benz has been
manufacturing a small series of the B-Class F-CELL since the
end of 2009.
We specifically utilize synergy potential within the Daimler
Group. One example of how know-how is transferred between the
commercial vehicle and car divisions is BLUETEC, an exhaust-
gas treatment system that has won many awards. BLUETEC de-
buted in the Mercedes-Benz Actros truck in January 2005. As
a result, the vehicle was able to fulfill the Euro 4 and Euro 5 emis-
sions limits well in advance. The first Mercedes-Benz Citaro city
buses equipped with BLUETEC were presented the following May.
In 2006, the technology for the world’s cleanest diesel engine
was introduced in the Mercedes-Benz E 320 BlueTEC, which was
subsequently voted “World Green Car of the Year 2007.” Since
then, we have launched another four BLUETEC cars on the market.
Because we also use hybrid technology in various segments, we
meanwhile lead the way with commercial vehicles with hybrid
drive systems. One of the world’s cleanest trucks, the Fuso Canter
Eco Hybrid uses up to 20% less fuel and emits significantly less
nitrogen oxide (-41%) and particulate (-46%) emissions than non-
hybrid models.
We have already delivered more than 2,600 diesel-electric hybrid
buses from our Orion brand to customers in North America. As a
result, we have put more hybrid buses on the road than any other
manufacturer in the world.
Significant reductions in fuel consumption and emissions.
Thanks to combustion engines that have been optimized in many
ways, downsizing concepts featuring superchargers, and new
drive systems, we have significantly reduced the fuel consumption
and CO
2
emissions of our cars and commercial vehicles over the
past several years. In 2009, we once again substantially reduced
the average CO
2
emissions of our new vehicles. The biggest
contributors to this improvement were our various newly launched
BlueEFFICIENCY models and the new four-cylinder diesel and
gasoline engines. The average CO
2
emissions of our car fleet in
the European Union fell by more than 7% in 2009 to 160 grams
per kilometer. This decrease is significantly better than the aver-
age reduction achieved by our competitors. Innovative tech-
nologies for emission-free mobility will enable us to further reduce
fuel consumption and CO
2
emissions in the future. We aim to
cut the average CO
2
emissions of our new vehicles in the European
Union to less than 140 g/km by 2012.
Electric mobility in practice. The electrification of vehicles and
drive systems will play a key role in the quest to achieve even
more efficiency and environmental compatibility. However, electric
vehicles will not be competitive until, in parallel with the devel-
opment of the vehicles, the associated charging infrastructure is
set up. For optimized ecology, the electricity used by the vehicles
should be sourced from regenerative energy.
Electric vehicles with batteries and fuel cells: smart fortwo electric drive, A-Class E-CELL and B-Class F-CELL.