Showing posts with label success. Show all posts

On course for success: More than 100,000car2go customers

By | Published Saturday, 26 May 2012

Daimler’s car2go subsidiary remains in the fast lane: In just six months, both the number of customers using the service and the number of rental transactions worldwide have doubled. The market leader in the area of flexible short-term vehicle rentals is thus continuing its rapid growth unabated. In fact, car2go is the fastest-growing carsharing company in the world. The system is now in place in 12 cities throughout Europe and North America; more than 100,000 customers have registered as members, and vehicles have been rented more than two million times. On average, a car2go vehicle is rented every eight seconds. The smart fortwo two-seater models used in the car2go system have proved to be ideal for urban mobility applications ever since the system was first launched in the Southern German city of Ulm in March 2009. The vehicles, which are manufactured in variants specifically designed for car2go, have since clocked up roughly 20 million kilometers. In most of the cities where the program is available, car2go is now being successfully operated in a joint venture with Europe’s leading car rental company, Europcar.

“car2go is an incredible success story, and it will continue to rapidly expand its business operations in the future,” says Klaus Entenmann, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler Financial Services, who is responsible for car2go at the Daimler Group. “We’ll be operating in around 20 cities by the end of the year, and the number of customers we serve will certainly once again rise sharply.”

car2go GmbH Managing Director Robert Henrich says, “Two million car2go rentals not only make us happy; they also show just how enthusiastic our 100,000 customers are about the system. As a pioneer and the only international company to offer such a flexible short-term rental service, we also now have a wealth of experience, in large part due to our ongoing dialogue with our customers. This is enabling us to expand rapidly all over the world and to further improve our service in line with customer feedback.”

More than 4,000 smart fortwo vehicles are currently operating in the 12 car2go cities, including 625 battery-electric smart fortwo electric drive models, which are being used in Amsterdam, San Diego, and Ulm. The regularly scheduled maintenance and cleaning of the cars makes the system extremely reliable and leads to great customer satisfaction.

Credits: Daimler AG

Copyright © 2012, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.

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Fourfold success for Mercedes-Benz in the “Motor Klassik Awards 2012”

By | Published Wednesday, 21 March 2012

Readers of the German classic car magazine “Motor Klassik” have voted Mercedes-Benz vehicles the winners in a grand total of four categories in the “Motor Klassik Awards 2012” competition. The SLS AMG and the G‑Class, as well as two classic SL model series, each took the majority of votes in their respective categories. In issue 1/2012, “Motor Klassik” invited readers to cast their votes for the “Classic of the year” in 16 different categories. Awards were made in six chronologically arranged categories across the full spectrum of classic (“oldtimer”) and modern classic (“youngtimer”) vehicles, with a further prize for racing cars. On top of the classic car poll as such, awards were made to current vehicle models with the major potential to become classics of the future, as well as for outstanding personalities, events and auctions.


Among all the vehicles in the current Mercedes-Benz portfolio, the readers of “Motor Klassik” selected two models that, while generally already deemed to be classics, still have a long future ahead of them. The winner in the category “Off-road vehicle of 2012” was the G-Class, which has been part of the Mercedes-Benz model range since 1979 and is still considered the ultimate cross-country vehicle. Its exceptional status as an off-road icon can be attributed to a constant and systematic process of further development over more than three decades. The latest generation of the G-Class thus offers an impressive package of state-of-the-art powertrain engineering and high-quality interior appointments. At the same time it has managed to maintain those highly prized virtues that have marked this model out from the very beginning, such as its extreme robustness and excellent off-road capability.

Another vehicle that, in the opinion of readers, already has the qualities and fascination to make it a classic model is the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG super sports car, honoured in the category “Sports car of 2012”. With its exciting design and gullwing doors, it is evocative of the legendary 300 SL sports car of the 1950s. On top of which it features a stunning array of superb technology. Highlights include its aluminium spaceframe body, a 6.3-litre AMG V8 front mid-engine with 420 kW/571 hp, a seven-speed dual clutch transmission in a transaxle configuration and an aluminium double-wishbone sports suspension. It is a high-tech combination that ensures driving dynamics of the very finest.

Appropriately enough, as we mark the 60th birthday of the SL, readers also voted two of the sports cars from this exceptional Mercedes-Benz model family among their favourite classic cars: in the category “Classic of 1947-1961”, the winner was the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, the famous Gullwing Coupé of the W 198 model series. The production-model sports car was derived from the then W 194 racing sports car with which Mercedes-Benz re-entered international motor racing after the end of the Second World War and which was to prove so successful in international motorsport. This was the vehicle responsible for creating the aura of legend around the SL that still exists today. The series-production Gullwing model, built from 1954 to 1957, was a dream car in its own lifetime – and has remained so ever since. A total of 1,400 units were built. The closed sports car was then succeeded by the 300 SL Roadster (W 198 II).

The Mercedes-Benz 500 SL from the R 107 model series came out tops in the category “Classic of 1980-1991” in the “Motor Klassik Awards” competition. This lovely Roadster, with its powerful V8 engine (177 kW/240 hp), celebrated its premiere at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1980. Compared with the 450 SL, the model that it replaced, the new top-of-the-range model had a light-alloy V8 engine. This was complemented by interior appointments that were on a par with those of the then just recently introduced S-Class. From its launch until 1989, a total of 11,812 units of the 500 SL were built. The model series R 107 was altogether extremely successful and went on to be built for 18 years from 1971 until 1989 – quite possibly a record. Over this period, a total of 237,287 units of this open sports car model were produced.

The decisions made by readers of “Motor Klassik” represent at the same time a clear signal from lovers of classic cars: Mercedes-Benz vehicles of years gone by are among the key icons of automotive history. And every current model already has the genuine potential to become a classic of the future.
Credits: Daimler AG

Copyright © 2012, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.

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Italian F1 Grand Prix 2011: Race Preview Feature - KERS: The Secret Success Story of 2011 (MGP)

By | Published Thursday, 8 September 2011


Amid the attention attracted this year by both DRS and the performance characteristics of the Pirelli tyres, the return of KERS has been somewhat swamped in the public eye. Yet there’s a firm case to suggest that it, too, has played its own crucial role in enabling the significant increase in overtaking for 2011, with the system being variously used to boost drivers into the ‘DRS zone’ (i.e. less than one second behind the car in front), during the overtaking manoeuvre itself, or even to defend against a car behind with DRS in operation. While no hard data exists on this point, anecdotal evidence suggests KERS plays a role in nearly every overtaking manoeuvre for cars equipped with the system - as well as providing a valuable area of cutting-edge research into electronics and battery technology; in fact, exactly what the philosophy of Formula One has always been about.


How does the Mercedes-Benz KERS work?
The Mercedes-Benz KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) has been developed by Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines in Brixworth, UK with the support of Mercedes-Benz R&D in Sindelfingen, Germany - a process that also resulted in significant knowledge transfer to series production of hybrid technology. The KERS is made up of the Motor Generator Unit (MGU), the Power Electronics (PE) and a number of batteries that make up the Energy Storage System (ESS). When harvesting power that would otherwise be dissipated as heat through the braking system, the MGU works as a generator, providing three-phase electricity to the PE. This converts the electricity to DC voltage, and stores the energy in the battery. The process works in reverse when the driver requests boost, with the generator unit becoming a motor to supplement the engine power. The processes of harvesting and boosting are both approximately 80% efficient.

How large is the Mercedes-Benz KERS?
The motor in the MGU is approximately ten times smaller than commercial automotive units, while the battery is around eight times smaller than those commercially available. Overall, there are approximately 3,500 parts in a single KERS! It is a true example of cutting-edge engineering.

What is the lap time benefit of KERS at Monza?
The lap time gain from full use of KERS is over 0.4s at Monza. This compares to a lowest value so far this season of approximately 0.3s per lap in Hungary.

Why is Monza such a potent circuit for KERS usage?
The best-case scenario for KERS boosting is relatively slow corners followed by very long straights - exactly what Monza features plenty of. There are four times in the lap (out of Turns 2, 7, 10 and 11) when the car accelerates from relatively low speed to near terminal velocity, and this means that there is a relatively large lap-time benefit from boosting out of any of these four corners. Typical KERS deployment in Monza would see four boosts per lap, which are delivered to the wheels 20ms after the button is pressed.

As well as high speeds, Monza features heavy braking. Does that make it a good circuit for harvesting energy?
The cars spend over 12% of the lap (more than 10 seconds) on the brakes in Monza, with the braking event for Turn 1 seeing them shed around 265kph. However, Monza is actually the most marginal circuit of the year for KERS harvesting, owing to the low number of braking events during the lap: just six in total (Turns 1, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 11).

* Official photo and details courtesy of MERCEDES GP PETRONAS *

Copyright © 2011, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.

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