Interesting news from Mercedes-Benz when they announced that they are planning to open a new alternative powertrain technology center. Based on the campus of Mercedes’ Redford Township, Michigan facility, the German company made the announcement shortly after the township approved a tax exemption.

The Detroit Free Press said that Redford Township’s tax exemption would allow Mercedes-Benz to purchase $2.3 million worth of equipment for use at the Redford site. Located just 15 miles outside of the Detroit city limits, the move announced by Mercedes can only be seen as positive for an area struggling during the recent economic downturn.

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Mercedes Benz has spent the last two years trying to figure out what the next generation A and B-class compacts should be. Traditional gas and diesels? Hybrids? EVs? A mixture of all of those? The stakes are high in the this segment of the automobile game and MB has a lot riding on it. And Merc’s parent, Daimler, has just announced that it is going to obligate €600 million in updates and expansion to the factory that builds the A and B-class compacts.

Mercedes has yet to announce which platform, whether the A- class or the B-class, it will use for the upcoming small cars, but we do know that they will start production at the Rastatt factory in late 2011. Mercedes is adding a 710,000 square foot body shop to produces the shells of the new models at the factory and they have already started construction of a new stamping facility in nearby Kuppenheim to produce the body panels that will be welded at the Rastatt body shop.

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Good news if you’re into green cars and have a lot of money: That Mercedes-Benz S Class BlueHYBRID you ordered is on its way to your dealer’s showroom as we speak. Or if you’re just green and into the full on coveting mode, then that means you can soon swing by the Benz shop and desire.

This is Mercedes’ first production hybrid vehicle and the S 400 runs a mild hybrid system that M-B developed in combination with BMW. While the Bavarians are being performance oriented with their ActiveHybrid 7 Series, the three-pointed star gang is aimed for more efficiency. The Stuttgart boys have gone with a 3.5-liter V6 mated to the hybrid system, and have also used lithium ion batteries. This is the first time lithium ion batteries have been used in an automotive application.

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Mercedes-Benz has become the latest automaker to offer high-tech help to fight drowsiness while driving. If you get drowsy or dozy and start to show signs of nodding off, this car will show you a cup of coffee and warn you to wake up with a loud noise.

If you have ever fallen asleep at the wheel, you know just how dangerous it can be. It happened to me one time driving from San Francisco to L.A. on Hwy. 5 (also called the California Autobahn where if you’re driving 90 mph, you’re going too slow) I nodded off and when I woke up, I was in a lettuce field. I was lucky I didn’t total my car!

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Big, square, cubic, rectangular, quadrangular, dependable, and still here, after all these years, Mercedes-Benz G-Class is getting only a minor face lift, but it’s an excuse to talk about one of the most adorably practical rides out there. Why adorable? Well just look at the thing. It can’t be anything but what it is: A truck. Yes, it’s a very expensive truck, and yes, it is beloved by people like Ah-nuld (who supposedly has four of them, two silver, two black, all of them are bio-diesel fueled), but if it didn’t have that three-pointed star on it’s tennis court sized & proportioned hood, only two people would be using these things: farmers and the German military.

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More good news if you like higher mileage, lower emissions and cars graced by three-pointed stars. Mercedes-Benz will soon be offering not one, but two new BlueEfficiency diesel engines in their C-Class models. The C-Class is the “baby Mercedes”; they look like a real Mercedes, only smaller. Act like them too. Screwed together like a bank vault, lots of high tech gizmos, that sort of thing.

And now if the C-Class is your kind of car, you get three new diesel engine choices. There’s a 2.2-liter 4-banger diesel available with a single turbo that puts out 170 hp and a beefy 295 lb-ft of torque, and another 4 cylinder, this one featuring dual turbos, 204 hp and 369 lb-ft of torque. Either engine sounds like fun, but I’ll take the second one, thank you very much.

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It’s time for the New York Auto show, and although not the first show to spring into one’s mind, this is the show that Mercedes-Benz usually rolls out some interesting stuff. For example, when they first wanted to show their gullwing to the world back in the 50s, Mercedes did it in New York. Anyway, at this year’s show, the three-pointed star has decided to roll out some very interesting and efficient clean diesel concepts.

Case in point: the E 250 BlueEFFICIENCY Coupé. Sure, it’s just “a concept”, but it looks like one that could hit the showrooms by next week if they wanted to (and my bet is that Merc really wants to). The E 250 BlueEFFICIENCY Coupé gets 28 MPG around town and 39 MPG out on the open road. Which is pretty impressive for a car that weighs about what a WW II Tiger tank did. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but Mercedes hasn’t made a light car for 100 years, so getting figures like that is pretty impressive. What’s even more impressive is that Mercedes manages to pull 369 lb-ft of torque from a 2.2-liter four-cylinder direct-injection diesel engine. And on top of that, it’s a diesel that’s legal in all fifty states.

Concept? OK Mercedes, here’s a concept for you: very high sales figures in places like California. Just bring it to market and stop teasing us.

Source: AutoBlogGreen

The good news is that Mercedes-Benz is going to bring a diesel/electric hybrid out later this year. The bad news is that it will be in their M-Class SUV.

Mercedes-Benz is bringing a hybrid version of its S-Class sedan, the S400 BlueHYBRID, to market first, that’s true, but the FIRST hybrid Mercedes wanted released was their SUV. A hybrid version of the automaker’s M-Class SUV was supposed to make production last June, but a supplier glitch delayed that plan.

The M-Class hybrid will share the same hybrid drive system found in the S400 BlueHYBRID, only it will be diesel-powered, using the same 3.2L clean turbo-diesel found under the hood of the ML320 BlueTEC.

The M-Class hybrid will crank out a combined 340 horsepower, which is very comparable in power to the V8-powered ML550. Thanks to the electric motors fuel economy should be improved by about 30 percent. The ML320 BlueTEC already achieves 18/24 mpg city/highway, so the new model should be even better, particularly in city driving.

The hybrid M-Class is expected to hit showrooms sometime during the fourth quarter of this year.

Source: LeftLaneNews

If cars could high-five, I would surely be giving the Mercedes-Benz Concept BlueZERO a huuuuuge high-five right now. Mercedes-Benz is speeding way ahead of the pack (in an environmentally-friendly and metaphorically way mind you). Looking like something straight out of Speed Racer, this environmentally responsible electromobility on wheels is being presented at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. And its not just one model Mercedes is trumpeting, but three; each equipped with a different drive configuration–it’s all about your own individual sustainable mobility needs.

So which BlueZERO is for you and your electric drive desires?

Video and more photos after the jump.

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This is good news, if you like small, light weight sports cars like I do. It seems that Mercedes is considering building a small, open-topped car based on its A-Class platform. The A-Class is unknown here in the U.S., it’s a small, urban kind of car, that sort of resembles a shrunken minivan, and is more well known, in an engineering sense, for its powertrain packaging.

It also turns out that the A-class might provide a transportation option of more interest to the car enthusiast like us.

The proposed car would be even smaller then the SLK, and, assuredly, lighter. Although the SLK is a fun car, it IS a Merc, which means it is heavier than if it was made by, say, a Japanese company. Not so with the new A-class based roadster.

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Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.

A great man once said that, and boy is it ever right in this day and age … Seems that the mighty Mercedes-Benz is going to be ditching their huge displacement, whomping-stomping V-12s and will begin using blown V-8s for all of their high performance needs. Hey, nothing wrong with that. Head down to the local drag strip to see how much grunt you can get out of 8 cylinders. And besides, V-12s are sort of an Italian thing, more than a German. MB’s move seems to follow (mirror?) BMW’s ditching of the naturally aspirated V10 in favor of a twin-turbo V8 for their top models. So say Auf Wiedersehen to Mercedes models currently running the company’s 6.0-liter V12: the S600, CL600, SL600, S65, CL65, and SL65.

However, if you DO get the chance town drive or own one of these beasts, I won’t tell you it’s a bad idea (if you can afford it). Sure, they’re not as light and revvy as a Ferrari V-12, nor is the note as operatic, but like everything Mercedes makes, they feel like they’re as tough as an anvil (and twice as heavy); very similar to the V-12 Mercedes provided to the Luftwaffe to install in their Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Only without the Rheinmetall-Borsig cannon mounted between the cylinders.

Source: LeftLaneNews

Wa-HOOOO! That’s what you’ll be saying (either literally or to yourself) when you step on the gas peddle of the AMG-massaged diesel that’ll be rolling out by 2011. That is, if Volker Mornhinweg, the boss of Mercedes’ tuning division, has his way.

Herr Mornhinweg described the upcoming model as an updated version of the legendary AMG Hammer. “This car will be the Super Hammer,” said Mornhinweg. Again, allow me to repeat myself: “Wa-HOOOO!” I’m not that big of a sedan guy, but the first AMG Hammer was flat out stunning. Durn thing accelerated like a WRC car in the hands of Sebastien Loeb - and you know how heavy Mercedes-Benz are, right? And what makes this so uber cool is that it’s an oil burner. Which means two things:

1 - Better mileage, and

2 - You could potentially, probably run the thing on bio-diesel

Interesting possibilities, no?

Anyway, this new iteration won’t be some big honker of a car, like a large coupe or sedan, because Volker Mornhinweg has already said that he prefers the idea of a smaller, lighter and more efficient car. Yeah-yeah, right Volker, smaller, lighter and more efficient … cloak it all you want in those terms, but to me “smaller & lighter” translates into high performance. It’s likely to be based on a C-class diesel, such as the C320.

So bring on 2011 I say. This could be a lot of (responsible) fun.

Source: AutoBlogGreen

The first major auto show for fall starts on October 4 in Paris. Already there has been a deluge of announcements hitting the news wires. This year Mercedes-Benz is trying to generate excitement and bring attention to their future coupé designs. Whether you think that M-B designs are conservative-European (appealing mostly to the wannabe executive crowd) or if you think that Dr. Z is a trendsetter, you might like the concepts generated from the ConceptFASCINATION design study. Take a peek at the slideshow located at the bottom of page 2. The long-winded press announcement from Daimler is below the jump.

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The exclusive high-performance coupé for the discerning motorist

Mercedes-Benz unleashes their SL 65 Black Series that turns out an eye-popping 670 hp and 737 lb-ft of torque from a 6 liter V12 twin turbocharged motor. Only 200 units are designated for U.S. shores, so get in line now. Don’t forget to bring your checkbook. The price tag for the SL 65 Black Series is $320,000.

Equally impressive is the SL 65’s power-to-weight ratio of 6.17 lb/hp. Similar in performance, but can be had for less than $300k, is the Ferrari 599 GTB Fioranio with a power-to-weight ration of 6.00 lb/hp. If you like numbers, the 599 GTB Fiorano cranks out 620 hp and 448 lb-ft of torque from a normally aspirated 6 liter V12. The Ferrari 599 seems like a bargain at $270,000. Does it become a question of which one to choose or do the two marquees attract their own loyal fellowship?

Following is the official press release and more photos of the SL 65 from Mercedes-Benz (Editor)

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Mercedes-Benz is continuing to build on its world-leading position in the field of clean diesel technology. The Stuttgart-based manufacturer has become the world’s first car producer to receive a certificate for licensing BlueTEC SUVs in all 50 US states.

Mercedes-Benz will shortly be launching three BlueTEC SUVs – the ML 320 BlueTEC, the R 320 BlueTEC and the GL 320 BlueTEC – featuring the technology for the world’s cleanest diesels. The vehicles, which will first be available in the US, comply with the extremely strict requirements of the American Bin 5 and ULEV emission standards, making Mercedes-Benz the first manufacturer to be able to license diesel SUVs in all 50 US states. Following the successful market launch of the “clean diesel pioneer” – E 320 BlueTEC – in October 2006, this new step – which coincides with the 150th anniversary of Rudolf Diesel’s birth – is another extremely important milestone in the diesel initiative launched by Mercedes-Benz.

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