Analysis by the environmental institute Öko-Trend Three awards for Mercedes-Benz

Stuttgart, Germany, The Mercedes-Benz S 400 HYBRID, the B 180 NGT and the smart mhd (micro hybrid drive) are the most environmentally friendly automobiles in their class. These are the findings from extensive analyses conducted by the independent experts at the internationally well-known environmental institute Öko-Trend.

As an institute for environmental research, Öko-Trend has developed criteria for the objective evaluation of the environmental compatibility of consumer goods. The experts at this neutral institute apply high standards during the assessment of automobiles. The Mercedes-Benz S 400 HYBRID, the B 180 NGT and the smart mhd (micro hybrid drive) have achieved results that are well above the average. In the view of the Institute, they not only deliver excellent results in terms of fuel consumption, exhaust emissions and noise, but also excel by virtue of environ-mentally compatible production, choice of materials and logistics. They also feature particularly environmentally compatible systems such as a start/stop function and hybrid or natural gas drive.

In the assessment of these experts, the Mercedes-Benz S 400 HYBRID is the most environmentally compatible car in the luxury class. With its combination of a 205 kW (279 hp) six-cylinder petrol engine and a 15 kW (20 hp) electric motor, plus an automatic start/stop function, this premium saloon has a fuel consump-tion of just 7.9 litres per 100 kilometres. It therefore demonstrates that even in the luxury class, environmental protection is by no means an alien concept.

In the ranking by CARB (California Air Resources Board), regarding the Global Warming Potential, the S 400 HYBRID also performed outstandingly with nine of the ten maximum points. Accordingly CARB has given the premium saloon a top place in its list of buying recommendations for environmentally efficient automobiles.

In the analysis by the environmental institute Öko-Trend in the Compact Vans category the Mercedes-Benz B 180 NGT with bifuel drive achieved the highest ranking as the most environmentally compatible model. This natural gas variant of the B-Class lowers fuel consumption, emissions and fuel costs.

The smart fortwo mhd (micro hybrid drive) convertible was the winner in the Convertible/Roadster category according to the stringent environmental criteria of the Eco-Institute. The automatic start/stop function switches the engine off when the driver brakes and the vehicle speed falls below 8 km/h. It is restarted in fractions of a second when the driver takes his foot off the brake pedal again. This makes fuel savings of up to 20 percent possible in city traffic.
The "Öko-Trend Institute for Environmental Research" founded by the University of Wuppertal has already been publishing research results about the environ-mental compatibility of car models since 1997 (www.oeko-trend.de).