For Mercedes-Benz it is both a corporate goal and an obligation to shape the future of mobility in a responsible and sustainable manner. Sustainable means using natural resources to meet a wide variety of human needs without limiting the freedom of action of those who come after us.
A comprehensive approach
A manufacturer producing sustainable vans must think beyond topics such as fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. We do this at all levels of our vehicle development and production – and therefore take a comprehensive approach to all the potentials relating to drive systems, lightweight construction, energy management and fuels. This all-round approach also includes aspects such as the overall CO2 balance of vehicles, choice of materials, development, production, use and servicing, right up to eventual recycling and disposal.
Parallel paths to the goal
As the requirements for the mobility of the future are becoming increasingly varied, there will not be just one vehicle type or just one drive system. Even though they are currently the focus of great public interest at present, we consider individual developments such as hybrid drive to be only one of several possibilities on the road to sustainable mobility. We therefore conduct parallel research on all the technologies that hold promise in our view:
- concerted improvements to our internal combustion engine powered vehicles
- even greater efficiency using hybrid drive concepts
- emission-free driving with fuel cell and battery-powered vehicles
In addition we support the development, production and distribution of alternative fuels for internal combustion engines (biofuels and synthetic fuels), as well as energy sources for emission-free driving. The affordability of these new technologies also plays an important part in our development efforts,
Because commercial vehicle concepts which are not economically efficient will not
have a chance on the market of tomorrow, either
The goal of our comprehensive commitment to the environment is emission-free mobility – for example with fuel cell drive systems, which will enter series production in Mercedes-Benz passenger cars in 2010, and will sooner or later also power our vans as one of several alternatives. Worldwide operating conditions, transport infrastructures and personal mobility needs are very varied – and so are our drive concepts.