Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz, an automobile manufacturer and a multinational division of the German manufacturer Daimler Aktien-Gesellschaft (AG), produces luxury buses, cars, coaches, limousines, sport utility vehicles, and trucks. Corporate headquarters are in Stuttgart. The Mercedes-Benz slogan is “Das Beste oder nichts,” “The best or nothing” in English. Mercedes-Benz is one of the big three German luxury automakers with Audi and BMW.
Mercedes-Benz traces its beginnings to the Karl Benz creation, the Benz Patent Motorwagen, the first gasoline-powered car, patented in January 1886, and to Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach’s conversion of a stagecoach by the addition of a gasoline engine that same year. The Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft company sold the first Mercedes automobile, named for an Austrian investor’s daughter, in 1901. The first Mercedes-Benz vehicles in 1926 followed the merger of the Benz and Daimler companies into Daimler-Benz.
Mercedes-Benz has made many technological and safety innovations later common in other vehicles. One of the best known and most established of world automotive brands, Mercedes-Benz is also one of the world’s oldest still in existence.
Mercedes-Benz builds and assembles gasoline-, diesel-, and hybrid-powered vehicles at plants in 27 countries besides Germany. Nineteen vehicle classes comprise the current model range. Mercedes-Benz carries an exhaustive inventory of passenger, light commercial, and heavy commercial equipment. Daimler AG also produces the Smart brand of micro city cars. Since its start, Mercedes-Benz has enjoyed a reputation for high quality and durability.
Mercedes-Benz automobiles have introduced numerous technological innovations, inventions, and developments over their many years in production. Daimler invented the honeycombed grill type of radiator still in use on all liquid-cooled vehicles today. Daimler invented the float carburetor in use until its replacement by fuel injection. The original 1901 Mercedes was the first car with a modern configuration, the body between the front and rear wheels, a front-mounted engine, and powered rear wheels. All earlier cars were “horseless carriages” with high centers of gravity.
Mercedes -Benz in 1924 had the first passenger car with brakes on all four wheels. Mercedes-Benz in 1951 first developed front and rear crumple zones, an important safety milestone in automobile construction. In 1959, Mercedes-Benz patented a device to prevent drive wheels from spinning and in 1987 applied the patent in a traction control system for both braking and acceleration.
1981 S-Class vehicles introduced the first airbags into the European market. In the same year, Mercedes-Benz introduced pre-tensioners to seat belts. In car crashes, pre-tensioners tighten instantaneously to remove any slack and prevent the impact from throwing belted occupants forward. In 2003, Mercedes-Benz introduced the first seven-speed automatic transmission.
Between 2003 and 2009, Mercedes-Benz produced a sports car in collaboration with McLaren Cars, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. McLaren ceased production of the SLR in 2009 and went on to develop its own car, the McLaren MP4-12C, launched in 2011.
Mercedes-Benz concept cars have demonstrated feasibility with hybrid electric, fully electric, and fuel-cell powertrains for alternate propulsion. At the 2007 Frankfurt auto show, Mercedes-Benz displayed seven hybrid models. Since 2002, Mercedes-Benz has worked on development of the fuel cell, producing a current version with a 250-mile range.
