Mercedes Joins Engine Downsizing, Electric Trends
By Michelle Krebs December 16, 2009In the U.S., it's a looming 35-miles-per-gallon fuel-economy mandate. In Europe, it's 
continually tightening restrictions on carbon-dioxide emissions.
Whatever the case, even luxury manufacturers - who, at least in the U.S., used to simply pay the fines for non-compliance - have their backs against the wall when it comes to environmental correctness. Power and heavyweight prestige are what they sell, but soon, there will be no choice but to improve fuel economy and reduce the emissions.
This week in the Middle East state of Abu Dhabi, Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz pulled back the curtain on its wide-ranging strategy to downsize the gasoline engines used in vehicles in almost every segment in which Mercedes sells. Many other automakers have already engaged in similar initiatives as it appears the pending emissions and fuel-economy mandates in the U.S. and Europe absolutely cannot be met with the large-displacement engines that historically have been premium automakers' part and parcel.
Mercedes will begin using turbocharging and direct fuel injection as a substitute for displacement - to the point where 4-cylinder engines could be under the hood of even the S-Class flagship - with a new family of modular V6 and V8 engines. The company even is pondering 3-cylinder engines for its smaller models.
And it's full speed ahead with battery- and fuel-cell-powered electric cars, too, some of which will be coming to the U.S. as soon as 2010.
Displacement Displaced
At the event this week to launch the E-Class Cabriolet in Abu Dhabi (the locale may be no coincidence: one of the nation's investment firms, Aabar Investments PJSC, this year became Daimler's largest single shareholder), Thomas Weber, member of the board at Daimler AG Group Research & Mercedes-Benz Cars Development, said the new modular V6 and V8 engines are coined MoVe and that all Mercedes V8s will be turbocharged by 2011.
Yes, that includes the high-performance models developed by in-house tuning division AMG, whose signature powerplant has been a monstrous 6.2-liter naturally aspirated V8 that was launched in 2006 but even at the time, AMG officials admitted, might have to be supplanted by something a bit more circumspect.
That means Mercedes' highest-performance cars will ditch the 6.2-liter V8 for a new 5.5-liter V8 that is twin-turbocharged and direct-injected, according to a report from Edmunds.com's Inside Line.
And Weber also told journalists in Stuttgart, Germany, this week that Mercedes is drawing up a new modular 4-cylinder engine range that will center on a displacement of about 2-liters and is being developed for use in the E-Class, various Mercedes crossovers and even the S-Class flagship - obviously indicating Mercedes engineers plan to extract more than a middling amount of power and torque from the new turbocharged and direct-injected 4-cylinder that also will incorporate a balance shaft to ensure the requisite refinement.
More titillating is the report Mercedes also is tussling with the idea of whether an even smaller 1.5-liter or 1.6-liter engine - earmarked for subcompact A- and B-Class models and eventually the next-generation C-Class - should perhaps eliminate a cylinder. A 3-cylinder is much more economical at the same displacement, they say, but confess the layout is not known for its smoothness. Any 3-cylinder Mercedes uses would have to have electronic noise- and vibration-mitigating measures, engineers admit.
Downsizing And Electrics For The U.S.
At a media event this week in Detroit, Ernst Lieb, CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, told reporters will be selling or leasing two all-electric cars in the U.S. by sometime next year, including a fuel-cell version that will be sold in small initial volumes. The fuel cell-powered B-Class small car will be a limited-run, lease-only arrangement, largely to test the infrastructure, Lieb told AutoObserver. Mercedes also will sell a smart electric car.
Lieb's analysis of the diesel-engine market in the U.S. may explain some of Mercedes' latest thinking about continuing to develop downsized gasoline engines. Lieb said the economies of diesel engines, particularly for smaller, less-expensive models such as the entry-level C-Class, are proving difficult in the U.S. market, where price sensitivity currently trumps fuel-economy concerns. - Bill Visnic, senior contributing editor, with Scott Oldham, Michelle Krebs and Richard Bremner
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