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Mercedes-Benz SL

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The new high-tech, low weight Mercedes SL roadster receives its official global unveil next week in Detroit.

“We want to get back to clean, long-lasting design,” director of Mercedes global advanced design and SL project leader, Steffen Kohl told CDN at the exclusive preview of the sixth-generation model. “So the new SL is long, sleek and still full of tension in the feature lines but less wedgy.”

In a short presentation Kohl felt all SLs became successfully iconic in their times because they followed two key rules – ‘sensuality’ and ‘cleanness’ – but alluded that the first rule may have been lost in more recent eras. “We did sensuality for a long time and now we’re coming back to it,” he confirmed, referencing natural shapes like the female form and cultural designs like a violin plus the clean designs of a classic Braun radio and the third-gen SL (1972-1989) as examples.

The design team assembled to take on the new SL starting back in 2007 included project manager Hans-Dieter Futschik with Mark Fetherston on the exterior and Hans-Peter Wunderlich overseeing the interior. The project was signed off in 2010.

Removing the wraps in the studio revealed new proportions with a lower silhouette, longer hood, and a wide, upright and deeper one-bar grille at the front. The official stats back up this impression; the SL is 50mm longer, a significant 57mm wider and boasts a 0.27 Cd drag coefficient.

These exterior dimensions pay interior dividends with 37mm more shoulder room and 28mm more elbow space. The aviation-inspired cabin clearly follows on from the existing SLS and SLK production cars with a whale fin-style IP and graphically clean ‘cross-hair’ air vents that resemble aircraft engines above a wide centre stack. Wunderlich said the treatment on the SL is “slightly more sensual than on the SLS” and great details abound from the narrow but curvy ribbed seat upholstery – inspired by protective racing bike suits by Dainese – to the revived use of the old-school Mercedes-Benz script logo on the bottom of the steering wheel, on a real metal part. From an ergonomic and sensory point of view, to sit in, it feels cosy rather than imposingly cockpit-like, or as Wunderlich added, “you sit behind the IP not over it”.

The idea of lightweight is fundamental to the new model’s structure. It has an aluminium bodyshell that is 110kg lighter than the outgoing steel version. Aluminium makes up 89% of the body with (even lighter) magnesium used around the rear bulkhead and high strength steel only used for the A-pillars to assist rollover safety. On the new SL350 V6 the reduction can add up to 140kg – or two slim men.

This lightweight structure was also developed to better integrate some of the new technology. For instance, the FrontBass stereo system uses the free spaces in the aluminium structures at the front of the footwells as resonance space for the bass speakers – rather than put them in the doors that Mercedes’ designers say can cause more vibration. Other tech includes a new windscreen wiper – ‘Magic Vision Control’ in Merc product-speak – that trades conventional squirters from the base of the windscreen for a series of holes in the wiper blade to deliver water direct to the windscreen and wipe it away at the same time, thus reducing the time the driver’s vision is obscured. As the water mainly comes out on the wiper’s downstroke it also avoids the potential for water spray to overshoot into the roadster’s cabin. Very Mercedes.

Revealed in a matte grey exterior finish first impressions of the car were very positive. One slight concern is the detailing within the front headlight clusters that at an initial view look a little fussy. But that question mark aside, the new wider and longer proportions, clean exterior lines and beautifully designed and finished interior add up to the 6th-gen model looking every inch a classic SL in the making.

 

Mercedes Benz China

Mercedes-Benz Exporting E-Class Models – From China

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The Chinese market is an important one for Mercedes-Benz, so no one thought twice when the German automaker entered into a manufacturing agreement with China’s BAIC. The joint venture, known as Beijing Benz, recently announced that it will begin building E-Class models for export.

Demand for E-Class models within China is rising year-on-year, with Beijing Benz reporting sales growth of 52 percent in the first 11 months of 2011, according to Gasgoo. China even gets unique E-Class models such as the long-wheelbase E-Class L, pitched with an extra helping of cheese by none other than George Clooney.

What we don’t yet know is which markets will get the Chinese-built Mercedes-Benz models. The United States is an unlikely choice (for now at least), since even Honda won’t ship Chinese manufactured Honda Fit hatchbacks to the U.S., although it does send them to Canada.

Beijing Benz sees the export of E-Class models as opening doors for the German-Chinese joint venture, as well as benefiting Beijing’s auto industry in general. BAIC hopes the success between itself and Mercedes-Benz will lead to further cooperation in the future.

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New Mercedes SL

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Mercedes has revealed its all-new SL, and the initials – which stand for sporty and lightweight – have never been more appropriate. The roadster is up to 140kg lighter than its predecessor, while new six and eight-cylinder engines are faster and cleaner than ever before.
The car’s illustrious bloodline stretches back to the original SL from 1952 – a model still highly coveted in the classic car market. But this 2012 version has its eyes fixed on the future, with an all-aluminium body and a raft of groundbreaking technology.
For the first time in a production model, Mercedes has produced an all-aluminium bodyshell, to dramatic effect. It weighs 110kg less than the steel body from the outgoing car. Other measures, such as aluminium suspension components, take the total saving to 125kg in the SL 500 and 140kg in the SL 350. This improves rigidity, agility and efficiency.
Two engines, both with stop-start as standard, will be available from launch. The SL 500 features a new 429bhp 4.7-litre V8, while the SL 350 gets a 302bhp 3.5-litre V6. Smaller than the 5.5-litre engine it replaces, the new V8 is around 12 per cent more powerful, yet fuel returns have improved by 22 per cent to 29.8mpg. The V6 engine is almost 30 per cent more economical, at 41.5mpg.
Performance should be more thrilling than ever, though, with the SL 500 covering 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds – eight-tenths faster than the old car. And the SL 350 shaves three-tenths off its time, taking it down to 5.9 seconds.
The new profile is still unmistakably an SL, with its long bonnet and cabin set well back in the wheelbase. Chromed fins on the car’s flanks are a nod to the original SL, while the upright grille and big three-pointed star continue a theme that began on the SLS AMG.
In the search for more interior space, the new model has grown by 50mm in length and 57mm in width, despite its dramatic weight-loss. The cabin clearly takes inspiration from the SLS, with its bullseye air vents and gently tapered centre console. Three types of wood and two aluminium trim finishes are available, so you can tailor the interior to your taste.
A revised folding hard-top retracts into the boot quicker than before, and has a couple of neat tricks up its sleeve. It’s available with three finishes – painted, with a glass top or a panoramic vario-roof. The latter, which also features on the new SLK, can be switched from transparent to opaque at the touch of a button. A magnesium frame means it’s 6kg lighter than the old hood, too.
A number of innovations debut on the SL. Magic Vision Control is Mercedes’ name for a wiper system that applies the washer fluid from within the blade – eliminating those hairy moments when the spray obscures the windscreen. The blades are also heated to prevent ice welding them to the glass in the winter.
A new FrontBass system uses free spaces in the footwells to amplify the speakers, and frees up space in the doors, while the bootlid can be opened by waving your foot under the rear bumper.
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Mercedes E300 BlueTEC HYBRID

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This is the Mercedes E-Class E300 BlueTEC HYBRID – not only the most efficient E-Class ever but the most efficient large executive car in its class too.

Making its worldwide debut at the Detroit Motor Show next month and going on sale in the UK in the summer, it features a 201bhp 2.1-litre, four-cylinder diesel engine boosted by a 20kW electric motor.

Together with a lithium-ion battery pack, it can return 67.3mpg and emit just 109g/km – by comparison the current class leader, the non-hybrid BMW 520d Efficient Dynamics, does 62.8mpg and 119g/km.

However, while the 520d ED costs £30,435, the E300 BlueTEC HYBRID is likely to cost around £40,000. No acceleration figures are available yet but expect a 0-60mph time of around seven seconds.

The hybrid features stop-start and a ‘sailing mode’, whereby the engine is switched off when up to cruising speed on the motorway, allowing the electric motor to silently power the car. Available as a saloon and an estate, the installation hybrid pack is so compact that there’s no impact on boot space at all.