Mercedes-Benz has dazzled the automotive world in recent years with far-reaching concept cars that are insanely fast or dramatically styled or highly efficient and aerodynamic. But the latest concept car is none of those things — it’s an approximation of a car that doesn’t even have wheels. Instead, it focuses on the fundamentals of engineering and building a car and selecting the necessary components and raw materials based on their sustainability.
The Sierra Club Concept
If the Sierra Club were building a car, it might resemble the Mercedes-Benz Tomorrow XX, athough for now there isn’t much to look at. The point wasn’t to deliver a beautifully sculpted machine — like the recent Concept AMG GT XX or the Vision EQXX — but to take an exploded view of the automobile and then dig deep for ways to reduce overall vehicle weight while streamlining manufacturing efficiency, enhance biodiversity and consume less energy at the plant level.
Little To Do With Styling Or Powertrain
This is not your usual concept car with a polarizing design that boasts break-neck speeds or 1,200 horsepower or four inches of ground clearance or a wildly impractical interior that might not even have a steering wheel.
No, the Tomorrow XX has very little to do with aesthetics and styling, and it isn’t specific to internal-combustion or battery-electric powertrains. Instead, this one comes from the advanced R&D labs in Stuttgart where the engineers are paid to obsess about little things that could make a big difference.
Fossil-Free Plastics, Low-Carbon Steel
We’re talking about door modules made from fossil-free plastics, and a fully recyclable headlamp that is easier to repair and service, and door pockets made from recycled plastic pop bottles, and bumpers made from post-consumer recycled plastics, and a targeted 90-percent reduction in the carbon footprint for producing aluminum.
We’re talking about eliminating conventional blast furnaces with electric-arc furnaces powered entirely by renewable energy to make nearly zero-carbon steel, while reusing 100% of the scrap, through partnerships with steelmakers.
New CLA Provides A Sneak Peek
We’re talking about “urban mining” to recover secondary raw materials from junkyards for use in new Mercedes-Benz vehicles, and partnerships have been formed. “An innovative collection site for scrap vehicles is being built in northwestern Germany,” the automaker says. “It can make a significant contribution to securing recycled raw materials for reintegration into the product cycle.”
We’ve all been in production cars that incorporate recycled plastics for seating fabric, but Mercedes-Benz sees a lot more room for growth. “For example, the windshield washer fluid reservoir on the new CLA is made from 100-percent recycled instead of primary polypropylene,” the automaker says.
40 Components Reimagined
“We are rethinking literally every single component from scratch,” says Jörg Burzer, Mercedes board member and chief technology officer, Development & Procurement. “The Tomorrow XX technology program pushes this holistically across our entire product portfolio and value chain to the limits of what is possible. More than 40 new and more sustainable component and material concepts in just two years is a phenomenal result and a taste of the enormous potential we are unlocking.”
Sounds Great. Is It All Affordable?
All this stuff sounds grand and perhaps utopian, but how practical are these approaches in high-volume production? Automakers are drawn to the lowest bidder for a reason, and yet the average price of a new car in America is pushing $50,000.
Maybe customers shopping for a Mercedes S-Class don’t mind spending more for their zero-carbon steel, but the real challenge is making it available on a Nissan Versa.
That’s not to denigrate the Tomorrow XX concept. Automotive component suppliers face extreme demands from their OEM customers, and surely they are viewing this Mercedes-Benz initiative with open minds, perhaps a bit of enthusiasm and a chance to think outside the box.
Source: Mercedes-Benz
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