In a world challenged to reuse and recycle, to conserve and protect, comes an automotive brand determined to make a significant technological contribution towards reducing the impact of CO₂ emissions on the environment.

Fuel-efficient and environmentally sustainable premium automobiles and state-of-the-art commercial vehicles and passenger cars from Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) are the cornerstones of an environmentally conscious brand strategy.

MBSA’s aim is to substantially reduce fuel consumption and to minimise emissions – and to completely eliminate them in the long run. To this end, the company is developing cutting-edge drive technologies that meet current and future mobility requirements in all aspects of road traffic.

Alongside economic factors – primarily increasing fuel prices – the environmental sustainability of vehicles is gaining importance in customer’s purchasing decisions. Customers want safe, comfortable and powerful vehicles that are also extremely efficient and environmentally compatible. The key challenge is to make vehicles even more efficient and clean without compromising on comfort or safety.

By developing optimised vehicles with high-tech internal combustion engines, hybrid drives with a choice of output ratings and electric vehicles with batteries or fuel-cells, the manufacturer is consciously taking a multi-lane route to producing environmentally compatible and eventually zero-emission vehicles. In this way it is possible to provide sustainable mobility with great variety at a high level.

Roadmap for sustainable mobility

MBSA’s development strategy is centred on securing its leading position within the premium vehicle segment, and three key fields of action are defined in the roadmap for sustainable mobility. These are:

• The optimisation of vehicles with the very latest combustion engines – such as downsizing, petrol direct injection, turbocharging and BlueTEC – as well as specific vehicle optimisation initiatives in areas such as aerodynamics, lightweight design and energy management (BlueEfficiency).
• Further efficiency improvements via individually tailored hybridisation in a number of stages – from the start/stop function through to the two-mode hybrid with full electric drive capability.
• Zero-emissions driving with fuel cells and battery-powered vehicles

Up to 30% less fuel consumption

Development engineers have devised individual packages tailor-made for each vehicle segment. The objective is to find the best solution for each individual vehicle model. Under the BlueEfficiency label, Mercedes-Benz has developed a package of various fuel economic measures, which are being rolled out through the entire model range. The package encompasses optimisation of weight, aerodynamics, rolling resistance, energy management and powertrain. BlueEfficiency initiatives can reduce fuel consumption by up to 30%.

The manufacturer wants to make petrol engines as efficient as diesel engines, and diesel engines as clean as petrol engines. With the highly efficient BlueTec exhaust gas treatment system, the company has already achieved its aim for the diesel engine, and thus proven the future viability of the self-ignition engine. When it comes to fuel consumption, the latest diesel technology is currently the best option for large sedans and SUVs.

Many commercial vehicles under the brand are engineered with BlueTec and today we see more than 330 000 trucks and buses on international roads with this technology and around 5 000 with alternative drive systems. On both the commercial vehicle and passenger cars, Germany is moving to Euro 6 emission-free levels, which requires diesel with a sulphur content of less than 10 ppm. MBSA has the technology to offer customers significant fuel savings, but without the required fuel as they cannot bring this to South Africa.