Mercedes: Seven Years to Zero Gas vehicles

[Coexist]

What I find most heartening in this article is the phrase, "because the oil supply will eventually run out."

Once the general public lets this simple truth sink in, the world will change.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/motors/phil_lanning/article1314732.ece

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.

<snip>
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.

<snip>
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.

<snip>
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.

[carlyhippy]

1. good for MB

That will be about the time the vehicle I just bought will be paid off. I doubt if I can afford a mercedes, but hopefully the other auto makers will fall into line behind them and get er done, and they will be making a new better vehicle that I will be able to afford.

Carly

[Coexist]

2. this is such great news for them

hopefully American automakers see this as a profitable path as well.

[dysfunctional press]

3. we don't plan on purchasing any more gasoline-powered vehicles.

we'll drive the ones we currently have into the ground, if we have to- to wait until the next generation becomes available. and if we save our spare shekels until then, we might even be able to afford the mercedes.

[lonestarnot]

8. Me either! Will drive the one I have into the ground first and it's a hybrid.

Holding out for running on air!

[Coexist]

9. I am embarassed to say I just bought a car two years ago

and its not a hybrid. There was a wait list, and my old car was promised to my teen so I had to get one right away.

[lonestarnot]

16. You shouldn't be embarassed! One has to do what one has to do.

:hug: My teen got my toy truck. Pretty good mileage though those toyotas, and they last forever, well until the teenager tears it up.

[baldguy]

4. In 10 yrs the top automakers in the world won't make gasoline powered cars.

And none of them will be American corporations.

[Coexist]

5. I hope not.

I remember Ford trying to go green several years ago, and the car lines flopped. Maybe they can get back to that.

[PoiBoy]

6. Think City cars...

If this is the green effort you're talking about, I wonder why Ford sold out...

http://www.urbanwoods.net/resources/norways-think-electric-car-will-return-to-the-us-and-made-in-california/

<snip>
Ford Motor Co. was the longtime owner of Think but sold it in 2003. It was purchased by Norweigan investors two years ago, and began selling cars in Norway this year, with sales in Sweden, Denmark and Britain expected this year. The company said its annual production capacity in Europe is 10,000 vehicles.
<end>


It boggles my mind that the American automakers are so behind the industry in the design and developement of alternative energy cars and trucks... and their offerings to date are quite lame and overpriced compared to the competition...

[Coexist]

7. call me crazy,

but I actually think affordable healthcare will make American cars competitive in quality for cost.

[Eurobabe]

14. Just in time for the oil from those off-shore wells

and ANWR right? :eyes:

[OhioChick]

10. Good for Mercedes...

Are their cars still going to be out of the price range of average citizens?

[PBS Poll-435]

11. In Europe, they are not considered just a luxury automaker

They are a mainstream automaker.

The "A" Class is about the cheapest-looking shite I have ever seen, and it is quite affordable.

Even BMW makes the 1 Series.

[dysfunctional press]

15. aren't a lot of the cabs mercedes?

i used to valet at a country club, and was never all that impressed with the mercedes interiors.
for REAL comfort, you can't beat a lincoln town car- it's like sitting on your couch, driving your living room around.

[hunter]

12. Mercedes Shoes and Bicycles and Streetcars???

Who'd have thought...

[Eurobabe]

13. I'd buy an electric SMART

It's about time, I wondered why I hadn't heard more from the German mfgs. re: fuel-free vehicles.