Mercedes-Benz

• 1. Introduction

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  Mercedes-Benz is a German car brand that, in 2018, became the largest premium vehicle brand in the world, with sales of 2.31 million passenger cars. Its slogan is "The Best or Nothing". The company is based in Stuttgart, in Baden-Württemberg, and builds luxury cars and light commercial vehicles under a single name. That name is odd when you look at it closely. It sets a girl's first name beside a surname. Where did each half come from? How did a maker of cars once described by owners as "indestructible" come to be linked with safety firsts, motor racing and electric power? And what has it cost along the way?

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• 2. Monsieur Mercédès

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  At the Nice race of 1899, one driver entered under the pseudonym "Monsieur Mercédès". He was Emil Jellinek, an Austrian automobile entrepreneur who worked with the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, known as DMG. Many people consider that race the birth of Mercedes-Benz as a brand. Jellinek was a marketing strategist who promoted the "horseless" Daimler automobiles among the highest circles of society. His customers included the Rothschild family. By 1901 he was also selling cars in the "New World", to billionaires named Rockefeller, Astor, Morgan and Taylor.

  The 1901 Mercedes 35 hp took its name from Jellinek's daughter, Mercédès Jellinek. DMG registered the name worldwide as a protected trademark in 1901, and Jellinek registered the trademark in 1902.

  In June 1909, DMG registered both a three-pointed and a four-pointed star as trademarks, yet only the three-pointed star was used. To the company, it symbolised Gottlieb Daimler's aim of universal motorisation on land, on water and in the air. Adolf Daimler, Gottlieb's son, is credited with developing the logo. He served as chief engineer and board member from 1899 to 1913.

  The Benz half of the name begins with a patent granted in January 1886 for the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, built by Carl Benz. The money behind it came from the dowry of his wife, Bertha Benz. The 1894 Benz Velo followed, and the Benz machines are widely recognised as the first cars powered by an internal combustion engine.

  Gottlieb Daimler was born on the 17th of March 1834 in Schorndorf. He trained as a gunsmith, worked in France, and studied at the Polytechnic School in Stuttgart from 1857 to 1859. In 1865, at a machine-tool factory in Reutlingen, he met Wilhelm Maybach. Later in 1886, the two men converted a stagecoach by adding a petrol engine.

  The two rival firms joined as Daimler-Benz on the 28th of June 1926. The first vehicles with the Mercedes-Benz name were built that year.

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• 3. The War Years

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  Throughout the 1930s, Mercedes-Benz produced the 770, a car that was especially popular in Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler was known to have ridden in one, fitted with modified bulletproof windshields. One of these cars is now on display at the War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario.

  From 1937 onward, Daimler-Benz turned increasingly to military products, including the LG3000 lorry and the DB600 and DB601 aero engines. To build the engines, the company had put up a factory in 1936, hidden in a forest at Genshagen, about 10 km south of Berlin. By 1942 it had mostly stopped making cars.

  In 1944, by the company's own statement, almost half of its 63,610 employees were forced labourers, prisoners of war or concentration-camp detainees. Another source puts that figure at 46,000. The company later paid $12 million in reparations to the labourers' families.

  After the war, the first factory the company built outside Germany was in Argentina. It originally built trucks, and many were modified by third parties into buses popularly called colectivo. Among the people who worked at that Argentine factory was Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi leader and war criminal.

  A new commercial chapter opened in 1958, when the company began a partnership with Studebaker to sell its cars in the United States. When the non-Mercedes side of that business closed in 1966, a few American Daimler-Benz dealerships were converted into Mercedes-Benz dealerships.

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• 4. Inventions and Safety

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  In 1951, Mercedes-Benz developed the safety cage, a rigid passenger cell with crumple zones at the front and rear. This design revolutionised passive safety in the car industry. Béla Barényi, who joined Daimler-Benz in 1937, is remembered as a car safety pioneer for his work on the rigid passenger shell.

  A 1959 patent covered a device that stops the drive wheels spinning by intervening at the engine, the transmission or the brakes. In 1987, the company applied for a patent on a traction control system that worked both under braking and under acceleration. The anti-lock braking system, or ABS, was first offered on the W116 450SEL 6.9. It became standard on the W126 S-Class from 1979, and most markets saw it in 1980.

  The 1981 S-Class brought airbags to the European market. The same model year added seat belt pre-tensioners, which tighten instantly in a crash and remove any slack, so the occupant does not jerk forward. Crumple zones and ABS were later written into safety legislation in Europe and the United States in the 1990s. Mercedes-Benz has also licensed some of its innovations to competitors.

  A system called Pre-Safe goes a step further by acting before impact. It detects an imminent crash and readies the car. It calculates the braking force needed to avoid an accident and has it ready the moment the driver presses the pedal. For the occupants, it tightens the seat belt, closes the sunroof and windows, and moves the seats into the best position. The company won the Safety Award at the 2007 What Car? Awards.

  In 1924, a Mercedes became the first passenger road car with brakes on all four wheels. The 260 D of 1936 was the first diesel-powered passenger car, and the 300SL Gullwing was the first to offer direct fuel injection. Gottlieb Daimler is credited with the honeycomb radiator still used on water-cooled vehicles, and with the float carburettor that served until fuel injection replaced it.

  The car Daimler first named "Mercedes" also introduced the "drop chassis". It had a lowered carriage set between the wheels, a front engine and powered rear wheels. Earlier cars were "horseless carriages" with high centres of gravity. In September 2003, the company introduced the world's first seven-speed automatic transmission, called 7G-Tronic.

  The W211 E320 CDI, with a 3.0-litre V6 common rail diesel producing 224 hp, was run by three identical cars. Between them they set three world endurance records approved by the FIA, and their combined distance was 300,000 miles. As of June 2013, the M133 engine in the A45 AMG delivered 181 horsepower per litre, the most of any series-production four-cylinder turbocharged motor.

  In the 1980s, Mercedes built the world's first robot car with Professor Ernst Dickmanns and his team at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. In 1987, the European Union's EUREKA programme started the Prometheus Project on autonomous vehicles, funded with nearly 800 million euros. In 1995, Dickmanns' re-engineered autonomous S-Class drove from Munich in Bavaria to Copenhagen in Denmark and back. On highways, it exceeded 175 km/h.

  That lineage leads to DRIVE PILOT, a conditionally automated driving system. The German Federal Motor Transport Authority has approved it for flowing traffic at up to 95 km/h, across the entire 13,191 km German Autobahn network.

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• 5. Silver Arrows and Titles

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  In the 1894 Paris-Rouen, the world's first motor race, a single Benz took part, and Émile Roger finished 14th in 10 hours 1 minute. Both firms that formed Mercedes-Benz were racing before they merged. Designs for the Silver Arrows are credited to Rudolf Uhlenhaut, who joined Daimler-Benz in 1931. His work also included the 300 SL and the 300 SLR. Rudolf Caracciola, one of the greatest Grand Prix drivers in history, drove the Silver Arrows in competition.

  The company has pulled out of racing more than once. It withdrew in the late 1930s, and again after the 1955 Le Mans disaster. There, a 300 SLR struck an Austin-Healey, took off into the stands, and killed more than 80 spectators. That same year, Stirling Moss and co-driver Denis Jenkinson won the Mille Miglia in Italy in a 300 SLR. Their record-breaking drive averaged almost 98 mph.

  Mercedes-Benz competed in Formula One in 1954 and 1955 and won two championship titles with Juan-Manuel Fangio, yet it left after just two seasons. Fangio later became honorary president of Mercedes-Benz Argentina, from 1987 until his death in 1995.

  The company returned to front-line competition in 1987, at Le Mans, in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft and in Formula One with Sauber. In the 1990s it partnered with the British engine builder Ilmor. With Al Unser Jr. at the wheel, it won the 1994 Indianapolis 500 and the 1994 CART IndyCar World Series Championship. The CLK GTR took two titles in the FIA's GT1 class.

  As an engine maker in Formula One from 1994, Mercedes first worked with Sauber and then switched to McLaren in 1995. Early results were poor. Then Mika Häkkinen won the drivers' championship in 1998 and 1999, and the team took the constructors' title in 1998. Lewis Hamilton won the drivers' title in 2008. In 2007, McLaren-Mercedes was fined a record US$100 million for stealing confidential Ferrari technical data.

  In 2009, Ross Brawn's new team, Brawn GP, used Mercedes engines to win the titles. At the end of that season, Mercedes-Benz sold its 40 percent stake in McLaren. It bought 70 percent of Brawn GP, together with an Abu Dhabi-based investment consortium. The team was renamed Mercedes GP for 2010.

  Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg took the drivers' and constructors' titles after major rule changes. In later seasons the team won 16 of 19 races, then 19 of 21. Hamilton was champion in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018-2019 and 2020, and Rosberg won in 2016. The team took constructors' championships from 2017 to 2021 and became the first to win seven consecutive double championships. Max Verstappen of Red Bull-Honda ended the streak in 2021.

  Michael Schumacher drove for Mercedes in the World Endurance Championship in the 1980s, and for its Formula One team from 2010 to 2012. Hamilton had been affiliated with Mercedes since he was 13 years old.

  Before the 2019-20 Formula E season, Mercedes announced it would join through its EQ branch, with drivers Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries. Its car was the Mercedes EQ Silver Arrow 01. De Vries won the title in 2020-21 and Vandoorne won it in 2021-22. After winning both the driver and team world championships, Mercedes EQ left Formula E and sold the team to McLaren. The Formula One team is now led by Toto Wolff, its CEO and Team Principal.

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• 6. Decoding the Badges

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  A GLC 300 has a 2.0-litre engine, which tells you how far the number on a Mercedes-Benz badge has drifted from its first meaning. Until 1994, the number was roughly the engine's displacement in litres multiplied by 100. Letters followed to show body style and engine type.

  The letter E stood for Einspritzung, meaning petrol fuel injection. "K" was used in the 1930s for Kompressor, a supercharged engine. In the SLK, SSK and CLK, the K instead stands for Kurz, meaning short wheelbase. "L" meant Leicht, or lightweight, on sporting models and Lang, or long wheelbase, on saloons. "R" stood for Rennen, meaning racing, as in the 300SLR. "S" stood for Sonderklasse, or special class, for flagships such as the S-Class.

  Some models broke the rules. The 190-class used "190" to mark its entry-level position. The real displacement sat on the right side of the boot, as in 190E 2.3 for a 2.3-litre four-cylinder petrol motor. Some 1950s models even carried lower-case letters for trim levels.

  For the 1994 model year, the system changed. Models were sorted into classes, each named with up to three letters. A three-digit number related to the engine followed, or two digits for AMG models. Extra labels flagged special features. 4MATIC meant all-wheel drive. CDI meant a common-rail diesel, and BlueTEC meant a diesel with exhaust after-treatment. Badges can be removed if the customer asks.

  In November 2014, a further rationalisation was announced. Under it, the GLK-Class became the GLC, the ML-Class became the GLE and the GL-Class became the GLS. The CL-Class became the S-Class Coupé, which has since been discontinued. The new scheme added a suffix for drive systems: d for diesel, e for electric, f for fuel cell and h for hybrid. The Mercedes-EQ line arrived in 2016, giving names such as the EQE.

  The AMG "63" shows the drift most clearly. It honours the 1960s 6.3-litre M100 engine, yet recent models wearing it have a 6.2-litre M156, a 5.5-litre M157 or even a 4.0-litre engine.

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• 7. The Electric Turn

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  In the United States, Mercedes-Benz was assessed a record US$30.66 million fine for not meeting the federal corporate average fuel economy standard in 2009. It paid an additional US$38 million for failing the standard in model years 2008-2011. Certain cars, including the S550 and every AMG model sold in the United States, also faced a gas guzzler tax.

  The European record was no kinder. In 2008, Mercedes ranked 14th out of 14 major European manufacturers on average emissions. It had also been the worst in 2007 and 2006, with figures of 181 and 188 grams per kilometre respectively.

  At the 2007 Frankfurt motor show, the company showed seven hybrid models, including the F700 concept with a DiesOtto engine. In 2009 it displayed three BlueZERO concepts at the North American International Auto Show, each with a different powertrain. The Vision S500 PHEV promised a 19 mi all-electric range. The S400 BlueHYBRID, launched in 2009, was the first production hybrid in the world to use a lithium-ion battery.

  Since 2002, the company has developed the F-Cell fuel cell vehicle, and the version based on the B-Class has a 250-mile range and is available for lease. In mid-2010, production began on the Vito E-Cell, an all-electric van. In the United Kingdom, 20 Elektrobay recharging units made by Brighton-based Elektromotive were installed at seven locations as a pilot.

  In September 2018, Mercedes unveiled the EQC, its first fully electric car, at an event in Stockholm. It opened its sixth battery factory that year. At the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it showed the VISION AVTR concept car, inspired by the 2009 science fiction film Avatar.

  Daimler said it would have invested 11 billion dollars by 2022 so that every Mercedes-Benz would have a fully electric or hybrid version. Markus Schäfer described the plan this way: "Our electric vehicles will be built in six plants on three continents." The owner of the brand also announced around 10,000 job cuts worldwide to focus on electric cars. This followed Audi declaring more than 9,000 cuts by 2025.

  In January 2021, Mercedes-Benz revealed the EQA, an electric SUV with a range of 426 kilometres, on sale in Europe from the 4th of February.

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• 8. Reputation and Reach

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  Before the mid-1990s, owners often called their Mercedes-Benz cars "tanks" or "indestructible", and the brand had a very strong reputation for quality and durability. Then J. D. Power surveys showed a downturn in the late 1990s and early 2000s. By mid-2005, the company had temporarily returned to the industry average for initial quality, which measures problems in the first 90 days of ownership. In the first quarter of 2007 it climbed from 25th to 5th place, and in 2008 it rose to 4th. In 2014, a study by iSeeCars.com for Reuters found the lowest recall rate among its competitors. Yet in June 2022, the company recalled almost one million vehicles built between 2004 and 2015 over possible braking problems caused by "advanced corrosion".

  The Bohnstedt-Petersen firm in Denmark assembled Mercedes-Benz models from 1935 to 1955, and special truck variants until 1984. Between 1959 and 1965, various models were assembled at the Australian Motor Industries facility in Port Melbourne. A plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, builds the GLE, GL and C-Class for the American market. Beijing Benz is a joint venture with the BAIC Group that builds cars for mainland China.

  In Vietnam, a joint venture established in 1995 with the Saigon Mechanical Engineering Corporation assembles cars in Ho Chi Minh City. The first model built there was the 1996 E230. Finland's Valmet Automotive plant in Uusikaupunki, from late 2013, built the first Mercedes-Benz passenger car ever made in that country.

  AMG is the in-house performance-tuning division, and its engines are all hand-built. Each finished engine receives a tag bearing the signature of the engineer who built it. The 2009 SLS AMG, a revival of the 300SL Gullwing, was the first car developed entirely by AMG. The Maybach brand, by contrast, stopped production in December 2012 because of falling sales, and it now lives on as Mercedes-Maybach.

  To promote Mario Kart 8, Nintendo put three Mercedes-Benz cars in the game as karts, including the 1934 W25 Silver Arrow. In one stunt, the magician Dynamo rode at race speed with David Coulthard, then drove the same track blindfolded in an SL63 AMG. The Atlanta Falcons' home, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, was announced on the 24th of August 2015 and opened in August 2017.

  Gottlieb Daimler sold the world's first truck in 1886, and bus production began in 1895 in Mannheim. Since the end of 2021, both have belonged to the independent company Daimler Truck.

  In May 2022, Mercedes-Benz announced it had sold the most expensive car, at a price of 142 million dollars. The car was a very rare 1955 Mercedes-Benz SLR from the company's own collection, bought by a private owner. The proceeds would establish the Mercedes-Benz Fund.

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