Prof. dr.Thomas Weber, 61, Daimler Chief Development, has confirmed in an interview for german car magazine Auto Motor und Sport that Mercedes will not built a 3 cylinder engine.
Eco thema is a hot subject these days. BMW has launched a three cylinder petrol and diesel engine for the new front wheel drive platform (Mini, BMW Active Tourer, new X1) and for the facelifted BMW 1 Series. But Mercedes will not follow this path.
Thomas Weber consider that “we pay special attention to the sound and vibration comfort. What you save by cutting a cylinder in therms of weight, must de fully reinvested in balancer shafts to counteract the vibrations”. A 3 cylinder engine is not as well balanced like a 4 cylinder engine.
For this reason, “we are using a big and a small 4 cylinder family engines with smaller distances between cylinders. We consider this the better way”.
Asked if Mercedes work to a rival for Tesla Model S, Thomas Weber answered: “We are working to an intelligent concept of an fully electric vehicle with a range between 400 and 500 km. And this concept will not be used for only one vehicle but also for different segments.”
Asked what is the ultimate goal of autonomous driving, Thomas Weber consider that autonomous driving will increase safety and comfort and the new E-Class will bring a lot of innovations in this field. Autonomous driving will help the driver to avoid some stress or boring situations and will gave the opportunity to use the time in a new way during “driving” a car. On the other hand, Weber mentioned that driving pleasure will not be neglected and will not dissapear. A driver can use the assistance systems every morning in a traffic jam when he go to the office but can enjoy the driving pleasure in the weekend on a nice road.
And driving pleasure must be maintained also for vehicles with alternative propulsion. “We cannot ask customers to buy electric or Plug-In Hybrid cars only for low CO2 emissions. We have to convince them above all other reasons with the driving pleassure and fascination.”
