New Mercedes-Benz C-Class is awarded Environmental Certificate

The new Mercedes-Benz C-Class is the first car in its market segment to be awarded an Environmental Certificate. The certification body of TÜV Süd Management Service GmbH has confirmed the car’s environmentally focused development, highlighting advances over the entire vehicle lifecycle in areas such as fuel consumption, exhaust emissions and selection of materials. Mercedes-Benz is the only automotive brand worldwide to have an Environmental Certificate meeting ISO standards. The new C-Class is the second Mercedes-Benz model since the introduction of the S-Class in 2005 to have its development process reviewed and confirmed by independent environmental experts. After careful assessment the experts from the German technical inspection authority, TÜV, determined that the development process of the new C-Class meets the requirements of the internationally recognised ISO standard 14062.

This standard, called ‘Design for Environment’, governs the integration of environmental aspects into product design and development.“The new C-Class is a further milestone on our way towards sustained mobility,” says Professor Dr Herbert Kohler, Chief Environmental Officer of DaimlerChrysler AG. “The Environmental Certificate confirms our longstanding commitment to environmentally compatible product development.” Through rigorous continuous development of the four-cylinder engines in the new C-Class, Mercedes engineers achieved fuel savings of up to six percent compared to the preceding model. Harmful emissions of nitrogen oxides are as much as 90 percent below the currently valid Euro 4 limits and hydrocarbons as much as 86 percent.During environmental tests, verified by the TÜV experts, Mercedes-Benz specialists analysed emissions and energy requirements throughout the entire lifecycle of the new saloon, from the production of the materials and components to a car with a mileage of 200,000 kilometres. Compared to a car built in 2000, the total energy requirements of the new C-Class decreased by 125 gigajoules, which corresponds to the energy content of about 3800 litres of petrol. Emissions of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, are reduced over the entire lifecycle by nine tonnes per vehicle. Volume of components made of recycled plastics increased by 34 percent by weightThe new C-Class uses mostly materials which are distinguished by minimal consumption of resources, low energy requirements and good recycling characteristics. The car already complies with the EU recycling rules due to take effect in 2015, which call for a 95 percent recycling rate (with maximum 10 percent energy recovery). In the new C-Class 32 components, with a total weight of more than 40 kilograms, can be manufactured from recycled plastics. This increases the volume of approved parts made of recycled materials by 34 percent versus the preceding model.

The ‘Design for Environment’ (DfE) principle defined by ISO standard 14062 has been firmly established in the development process for Mercedes-Benz passenger cars for 12 years. Specialists in the fields of environmental balance, dismantling and recycling planning, materials and process engineering, design and production are involved in the development of new models right from the start. They define the ecological requirements and ensure that the principle of ‘Design for Environment’ is applied throughout the process.