TSX69

Mercedes to Embrace Turbos, Fuel Cells, Electric Cars

With rival BMW warming up to the idea of turbocharging in a big way, Mercedes-Benz is poised to embrace the technology across its entire line. "We will go turbo-charging across the board on gasoline engines," R&D boss Dr. Thomas Weber told Leftlane in an interview last week. "Even the next A-Class generation will get a turbo engine." But that's not all — we questioned Weber on a variety of issues, and got some very interesting responses.

Mercedes-Benz will spend an astonishing 14 billion euros in the next two years in an attempt to go from zero to hero in environmentally friendly cars. Admitting it is playing “catch up” after years of profiting from high-horsepower sedans and SUVs, Benz now acknowledges it has been caught on the hop by booming oil prices and shrinking V8 sales.

What’s on the immediate horizon for Mercedes in terms of becoming more environmentally friendly and having cheaper cars to run?

"Everybody knows [gas prices] will never go back and that we are running out of oil. We just need to know if and where the prices will stabilize. Technology that was not economical 10 years ago — the calculations are completely different today."

"By 2010 we will have fuel-cell B-Classes on sale and by September this year we will have the S400 Hybrid on sale, too. The battery is the key. Lithium-ion technology offers a lot of advantages and we will be the first car maker on sale with one. We have 25 patents on it."

"The current generation smart will get the lithium battery in a full electric car in large numbers."

All this technology is well and good, but your cars, on average, are 300-400kg heavier than they were 20 years ago. If cars keep getting heavier, isn’t that a bit self-defeating?

"We have to reduce weight, we have to keep the length of the vehicle to the numbers we have today. We have set up a clear strategic target of five percent weight reduction, successor to successor, before each new generation of Mercedes-Benz will be approved."

"It used to be that they got five-to-six percent heavier."

We are the world’s largest aluminium user with the E-Class (its panels are aluminium), but we don’t have a 100 percent aluminium structure. Those that have it today have it for marketing reasons, not for any benefit. If you look to the potential of steel and tailor-welded blanks, we have to fight for a mix of the most intelligent materials on the market. Steel still has a lot to offer."

Okay, just say that I’m taken in by this new environmental earnestness. But I still remember the R-Class…

We need to look to the overall trend and, today, a lot of customers like crossovers. I believe we made some mistakes during the launch of the current R-Class and one important question is the future of SUVs. Do they have one? The only question is do we need them in the long run and what are the future trends?"

There was a time when Benz was determined to be first to market with any new technology, but you’ve lost that, haven’t you?

"It’s important that we decide the key technology fields where we want to have a leading position. It will not be possible for a brand to have a leading position in every field.That was our strategy before, but now we have to understand what are the inventions that add value to the customer."

But this awareness of your environmental shortcomings isn’t the first time you’ve been caught short lately, is it? There was the E-Class…

"We will never damage quality to introduce something to be first. We had a problem with the E-Class and it was a disaster. We will never ever put the brand at risk like this again."

Fuel cells have taken a while to mature. Where are you at with them?

"We are in a leading position and I expect that some of our competitors have to manage earnings, innovation and complexity in a way that doesn’t apply to us. The real question is: who will be strong enough to bring the important fields up to the buyer?" (Above Weber noted a fuel-cell B-Class will launch in 2010).

There is a lot of talk about the cost of developing hybrids and fuel cells and there’s also a lot of talk about Mercedes doing an engine deal with Aston Martin after 2012. If you’re the leaders, will you license out the technology?

"Why not license the drive-train technology for hybrids or fuel cells?"

"Aston? Why not? To do something in co-operation is a clever strategy. It gives someone else to offset your research and it helps develop faster."

So, that all works out for fuel savings, but what about your performance models?

"If you are talking about future types of sports cars, we are finding another way. There are competitors working with similar principals to our Diesotto, with variable combustion, turbo-charging, direct injection, variable compression and self-combustion."

"We believe we are in good shape to be first on the market with this technology and we believe the potential is huge."

Interview by Michael Taylor.

phil2

invisiblewar

Thats awesome, although you know things are getting bad when a top tier luxury car maker is looking to compete in the gas saver market(although that is basically the only market nowadays eh). Seems like they listened to the consumer on everything, lightening the weight up and turboing

fsttyms1

I think more and more will to get bigger power from smaller more efficient engines (not as small as the RDX motor though)

iforyou

iTrader: (1)

Luxury brands like MB and BMW have to do that (smaller engines + turbo), as they don't have smaller cars with smaller engines to obtain a decent average fuel economy number. I believe Europe will set (or has already set) a target of 130g/km of CO2, not too many cars can achieve that as of now.

charliemike

I actually LIKE the R-class. If I could afford one and had kidlets, I'd go look at a R320 CDI.

titan

Great article. Very encouraging.

Costco

I think you're a bit confused, either that or I am. It sounds like MB is looking to improve fuel efficiency, not create econo-cars (like the Civic)

But either way its good news for enthusiasts. I don't know anything particular about modding MBs but assuming that its FI means you can probably chip it and get a bunch of power for a relatively low price, like in turbocharged VW/Audi 1.8T and 2.0Ts

biker

Memo to MB - Honda already launched the Clarity.

To all the naysayers about luxury makes caring about fuel economy - I told you so

godfather2

it's a push in the right direction. funny how most premium brands are going turbo now, but audi (who has traditionally installed snails in the engines) is going to be hitting the market with a few rather efficient supercharged models soon. they still use turbo and twin turbo setups but aren't settling on just one means to an end

Ruski

but they were already SUPERcharging a bunch of their cars. So what's the big deal?

gavriil

I think turbocharging is a lot more efficient for their purposes so they are switching to that from SC.

Moog-Type-S

Good move

SRK85

So the C klasse will be turbocharged sweet I would love to see a C250tdi or 220tdi.

gavriil

Mind you that MB does use turbocharging for quite some time now on the A and B Class cars. It's a 2 liter motor making 200HP. But it's designed for FWD applications.

gavriil

TDI? You mean diesel?

MB sells a 200 CDI and a 220 CDI version in Europe. The former is a 2.2L diesel making 136HP and the latter makes 170HP from the same displacement.

Then there is a 320CDI making 224HP from 3 liters which also comes in AWD trim.

SRK85

Yea well no turbo diesel then? I just want a car that gets at least 200hp and 30mpg. So far theres only 3 cars that get that in the luxury market A4, 9-3, and the TSX.