|
Mercedes plan fuel seven year ditch
From PHIL LANNING in Seville
Published: 20 Jun 2008
MERCEDES are aiming to end the need for filling your fuel tank with petrol or
diesel within just SEVEN YEARS.
The German firm are determined to make their model range run on alternative
fuels - to improve costs, become more eco-friendly and because the oil
supply will eventually run out.
The fuel-ture is bright ... Mercedes
There are 50million jobs worldwide associated with the car and more than 80
per cent of goods are transported by road.
Mercedes are convinced that these two crucial areas of industry can be saved
by making vehicles independent of crude oil - to improve costs, become more
eco-friendly and because the oil supply will eventually run out.
The company have already spent £2million on their new long-term Sustainable
Mobility plan and are set to invest a further £7billion before 2014.
This includes making current engines even cleaner and more fuel-efficient
while increasing the amount of hybrids, emission-free electric cars and
clean-fuel gas engines and the further development of battery and
hydrogen-powered vehicles.
Mercedes will drip-feed different forms of more eco-friendly vehicles into our
showrooms as and when the technology has been developed over the next decade
- but the process begins towards the end of this year.
The new A and B-Class models which go on sale in October feature Start/Stop
technology - the car’s engine shuts down when it’s stopped at a red light
but automatically restarts when you lift your foot from the brake pedal.
Around town it can improve fuel efficiency by up to nine per cent.
Also out later this year are the Blue Efficiency A-Class 160 and C-Class
models, which could reduce fuel consumption by a further 12 per cent.
Mercedes have also just announced that the Smart diesel will come to the UK
for the first time in February 2009.
The new Smart Cdi will be the cleanest production car in the UK - emitting
just 88g per kilometre of CO2.
Modern ... new generation of Merc
The company’s next big step will be to launch a Smart electric car which is
fuel and emission-free.
There are currently 100 Smart electric cars being given trials in London and
they could be on the market as soon as 2010.
At the same time Mercedes hope to have their remarkable Diesotto engine
available for their range.
Launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show last year, it will produce remarkable
performance, yet will slash fuel consumption and emissions.
I was the first UK journalist to drive the Diesotto engine and ride in the
sensational F700 concept - see below - in Seville last week.
Also on the horizon are zero-emission fuel cell cars - such as the F600
Hygenius which I also drove.
They use electricity and hydrogen for power and are set to go into a prototype
B-Class in the coming months, slashing current fuel costs and eliminating
emissions completely.
Professor Dr Herbert Kohler, responsible for Mercedes’ advanced engineering,
told me he believes that by 2015 motorists will have switched almost
completely to alternative fuel cars, certainly in cities, to eliminate the
need for petrol and diesel in urban areas.
That’s great news.
Not so far in the future we will be charging our cars at night, not getting
charged a fortune.
ROAD TEST: Mercedes F700 Concept
BEAM me up, Scotty!
The Mercedes luxury car of the future has lasers, a 3D cinema, a reversible
backward-facing seat and a stunning computer-generated girl called Gloria -
it really is a modern-day Starship Enterprise.
Concept ... sensational F700
I’m the first UK journalist to get my hands on the sensational £1million F700
which represents the premium car we will be wanting to drive halfway through
the next decade.
I got a behind-closed-doors sneak preview of the Mercedes test site in Seville
and it was like being invited by Q into the secret, hi-tech world of 007.
So I donned a special scientist jacket and glasses to fit in better – although
I ended up looking more like an Elvis Costello tribute act.
The F700 is an S-Class that has been to the gym. It’s leaner, meaner and more
macho, with muscles appearing from every wheel arch.
But this concept’s beauty is in its brains, not bigger bulges. It is nicknamed
the Flying Carpet because of a gadget they call Pre-Scan Suspension.
That involves lasers housed in the headlamps scanning the road up to ten
metres ahead so the suspension can prepare even earlier for speed humps or
potholes to keep a superbly smooth drive.
There are even lasers in the wing mirrors to check for obstacles when opening
the doors.
Inside, the F700 is like a bachelor pad. There’s a unique giro-chair which
reverses in five sections so that the front passenger can face backwards
towards the 51cm 3D plasma screen with cinema surround sound.
There’s even what Mercedes have called a sushi bar console in the back, and
legroom is so good even Peter Crouch could stretch out.
For the driver there is a control system called Human Machine Interface.
The driving dials are on a mirrored screen perfectly placed in your driving
eye line to reduce eye movement from the road to the dials and therefore
lessen tiredness on long journeys.
But my favourite innovation is that KITT from Knight Rider has gone from being
a camp Englishman to a stunning blonde German called Gloria!
Computer-generated Gloria appears on a screen, greets you and chats away as
you ask her for satnav directions, to call a contact on your phone or to
change the radio station. Now that’s what I call progress.
But the genius in the F700 is under the bonnet. The Diesotto engine makes its
debut in this car and offers incredible performance for what would normally
be a gas-guzzler.
It combines the low emissions of a petrol engine with a diesel’s fuel economy
and is the first time diesel technology has been used in a petrol engine.
Classic
To gain the classic performance in an S-Class, the smallest engine currently
offered is a 3.5litre V6 petrol.
The Diesotto is just a four-cylinder 1.8litre engine yet still delivers 238bhp
with 0-62mph in 7.5 seconds and a top speed of 155mph.
That means it produces the performance of a BMW 730d Sport yet with fuel
economy better than a Suzuki Swift 1.3litre petrol with 44mpg and fewer
emissions than a 1litre Vauxhall Corsa petrol with 127g per kilometre.
I drove this new engine fitted in a current S-Class and it was smooth and
hardly any different from driving a huge V6 in handling or delivery of
power. It also has Start/Stop technology to boost economy even further.
Because the Diesotto engine is just a four-cylinder, it is relatively small
and can fit into the entire range of premium Mercedes cars once it has been
fully developed, by 2011.
And because of its size, there is more interior room available for the cars
which use it - the F700 illustrates just how well that extra space can be
used.
Mercedes concepts are rarely just wacky motor show headline grabbers. The
Germans always use the technology which goes into future models within five
years so this is certainly the S-Class of the next decade.
But I can’t wait until then. I’m missing Gloria already.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/motors/phil_lanning/article1314732.ece
|
