Daimler Sustainability Report 2010 - Daimler Sustainability Report ...

sources. Such approaches will make it possible to create an almost
completely CO2-free chain that will extend from electricity/ hydrogen
generation all the way to vehicle operation. This aspect and the
technological advances we achieved with our research and
advanced engineering work are what led us to forge ahead with the
electrification of the drive train and to launch series development
activities for electric vehicles. At the same time, we need to consider
the fact that our customers rightly expect our electric vehicles to
offer the quality that our conventional products deliver. That’s why
we’re extensively testing electric vehicles close to the series production
stage in pilot and field projects that will accelerate our progress
in this area. The internal combustion engine has undergone nearly
125 years of development and refinement to achieve its current high
level of reliability and, above all, cost optimization. Products in the
premium segment in particular can only be successful on the market
if they provide added value that customers actually notice. As our
experience has shown, the same applies to green products. While
we are firmly convinced that we can offer this type of added value
for various electric vehicle applications, we also know that we won’t
be able to do so overnight. Objectives like the launch of the smart ed
in 2012 with 10,000-plus units of production per year, or the German
government’s goal of having one million electric vehicles on the road
by 2020, are very ambitious, on the one hand. On the other hand,
they are feasible, especially if we quickly create the conditions in
Germany that are needed to achieve them. At the same time, the figures
I mentioned have to be viewed in relation to the actual number
of vehicles on the road, which in Germany amounts to a little more
than 40 million. When you look at it this way, you realize that combustion
engines will remain the backbone of automotive mobility
over the short and medium terms, even though a very significant
proportion of them will definitely be used in combination with hybrid
modules.
“We are firmly convinced that
we can offer customers
added value with our electric
vehicles.”
What does that mean for your combustion engines?
Kohler: It means we will continue to consistently improve the fuel
consumption of our combustion engines. Last year, we introduced
enhanced four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines whose fuel savings
total as much as 20 percent, depending on the type of vehicle
they’re used in. This year we’ll launch a new generation of V6 and
V8 gasoline engines offering fuel savings of up to 25 percent. We
will also successively launch new hybrid vehicles, including diesel
hybrids, that reduce fuel consumption by a further 20 percent or so.
Daimler is currently developing two types of electric vehicles:
those that run on batteries and those that operate with fuel
“Combustion engines will
remain the backbone of automotive
mobility over the short
and medium terms, even
though a significant proportion
of them will be used in combination
with hybrid modules.”
cells. Why the broad-based approach? Wouldn’t it be more efficient
to concentrate on one technology?
Kohler: Compared to combustion engines, both types have undergone
only a short period of intense development. Each type offers
its own specific benefits, but both also present challenges in terms
of technology and, more particularly, in terms of costs. With this in
mind, we currently believe that we need to pursue both developments
in parallel. At the moment, battery-powered vehicles, for
example, have a range of about 200 kilometers (124 miles), and
charging times vary from several hours to 30 minutes for a quick
charge. In addition, it only makes sense to use the current battery
systems in vehicles of a certain size.
Fuel cells have none of these limitations. We can, for example, already
achieve a range of 400 kilometers (249 miles) with the new
generation of the B-Class F-CELL that we introduced in 2009. Moreover,
the tank-filling time for that model is comparable to that of a
conventional vehicle today. Our activities to date, and especially the
extensive field tests we’ve conducted, have led to a situation where
our fuel cell models (A-Class, Sprinter, Citaro bus) have now clocked
a combined 4.5 million kilometers (2.8 million miles). The knowledge
we’ve gained here shows us that hydrogen operation with fuel
cells offers great technological and market potential. We recently
developed our e-drive modular system in order to achieve efficiency
gains despite the great variety of drive-system options — in other
words, battery power, fuel cells, hybrids, and their use across the
entire spectrum of passenger cars, vans, buses, and trucks. This
system will allow us to use the same components in all of our electric
vehicles.
With Concept BlueZERO, which is close to the series production
stage, we employed a single vehicle architecture to create three
models suitable for everyday use. Each was equipped with a different
drive system configuration: a purely battery-electric drive system
offering a range of up to 200 kilometers (124 miles); a fuel cell
drive with a range of 400 kilometers (249 miles); and a range extender
system that enables the vehicle to travel up to 600 kilometers
(373 miles), 100 kilometers (62 miles) of which can be driven in
electric mode.
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