The Evolution from Diesel to BLUETEC in Depth

Press Release

• Diesel technology from Mercedes-Benz: A history of innovations
• From stationary engine to refined automotive drive
• BLUETEC: The diesel technology of the future

The diesel engine draws much of its appeal from the history of the Mercedes-Benz brand. It "learned to walk" in the motor vehicle at Benz & Cie. - at the beginning of the twentieth century, design engineer Prosper L'Orange developed a vehicle propulsion unit from Rudolf Diesel's engine, and in 1923 the world's first diesel truck originated in Mannheim. Finally, in 1936 Mercedes-Benz built the world's first diesel passenger car. Since that time there has been an unending succession of innovations to every aspect of the compression-ignition engine in the vehicles of the Stuttgart-based brand.

BLUETEC is the latest innovation for low emission levels and is going to further advance the powerful but low-emission drive towards the future. These high-tech vehicles, which make good ecological sense and are blessed with attractive driving qualities, provide an answer to the questions of the vehicle concepts of tomorrow. In the modular BLUETEC system, Mercedes-Benz has put together a technology package for coming vehicle generations.

Its foundation is the diesel history of the brand. Over decades, the diesel increasingly has become a clean, powerful, high-speed drive unit, yet has retained its economical nature. Originally it was this economic efficiency and robustness which impressed contemporaries; today the diesel engine is an extremely low-emission power plant with sporty characteristics. Consequently, in the face of increasingly stringent emissions standards, the current compression-ignition engines constitute an alternative to gasoline engines more than they ever did. The market reflects this development: in the meantime every second car sold in Western Europe is a diesel car. Mercedes-Benz even sells 54 percent of its cars with a compression-ignition engine under the hood. The diesel is coming on very strong.