As the inventor of the automobile, Mercedes-Benz has a special responsibility to find solutions which help to slow down global warming and ensure extremely efficient use of raw materials. We call these TrueBlueSolutions. True because they are pure and true. Blue because they are designed with the entire blue planet in mind. Solutions because these really are long-term solutions rather than just visions.
Man and nature in harmony
The Mercedes-Benz brand position has been and will continue to be, to harmonise private transport with man and his natural environment. On the road towards zero-emission mobility, a comprehensive, holistic mode of thinking is required. Because it is only from an encompassing perspective, that considers economic and ecological challenges to be just as important as social responsibility, and sees all three forces as a unity, that it is possible for forward-looking solutions to arise which are also adequate to society.
Because of this, Mercedes-Benz wants to signalise its claim to leadership in the matter of sustainability, and also offer an orientation for people.
Some 40 000 processes
Each and every car is tested for its environmental compatibility. To this end, we developed a programme to assess all the environmental effects of a vehicle, from planning to recycling, some twelve years ago. We called it “Design for Environment”. By way of example, a great deal of energy is needed to manufacture lightweight materials such as aluminium. Our experts perform analyses to determine whether the weight advantages of aluminium lead to sufficient fuel savings over the vehicle’s lifetime, and whether its use is really worthwhile in terms of its impact on the environment. In our lifecycle assessment, we evaluate around 40 000 single processes per vehicle in order to build up a complete environmental profile.
Mercedes-Benz is the world’s first car brand to be awarded Environment Certificates based on the international standard ISO 14062, which allows environmental compatibility to be gauged objectively. The TÜV awarded the first certificate of this kind to the S-Class in 2005 and then to the C-Class sedan and estate in 2007 and also to the A-Class and B-Class in early 2008.
A new age in mobility
BlueEFFICIENCY is the name Mercedes-Benz gives to tailor-made efficiency packages that can reduce fuel consumption by up to twelve percent. Vehicles with this efficiency label may include special aerodynamics measures, the ECO start/stop function and tyres with low rolling resistance. The efficiency packages are available for a range of different models from 2009.
In the field of diesel catalytic converters, Mercedes-Benz launched a revolutionary technology in 2007 in the form of BlueTEC. Here, nitrogen oxides are reduced by up to 80 percent in a three-stage process. Mercedes-Benz diesel vehicles with hybrid drive and BlueTEC are called BlueTEC HYBRID models. Vehicles equipped with a BlueHYBRID drive system take cleanliness and economy to new levels. BlueHYBRID is the name given to various combinations incorporating a highly efficient internal combustion engine and an electric motor.
The F700 research vehicle enabled us to marry those of a diesel model. The DIESOTTO drive unit at the heart of the F700 is filled with petrol yet can also be run like an economical diesel unit, depending on the traffic situation.
Development of the F-CELL (fuel cell) emission-free drive system has been continuing at a healthy pace for a number of years.
