Merc downsizes S-Class sedan in CO2 race with BMW, Audi

BERLIN: Dailmer's Mercedes-Benz is rolling out an S-Class sedan with a four-cylinder engine, a first in the model’s 60-year history as it vies with Bayerische Motoren Werke and Volkswagen’s Audi for the “green” luxury driver. Simon Empson from Colchester, England, who has owned an S-Class ever since buying his first in the 1970s, hasn’t touched his V8-powered S500 for 18 months. Instead of cruising in the flagship Mercedes model, which starts at $84,000, he’s driving a Rio from Kia Motors because the Korean compact burns 70% less fuel.

“We have to start making some significant changes” in our driving habits because of the environment, said Empson, 52, who is managing director of UK discount car website Broadspeed .com. “In the new greener world, we will all have to learn how to drive fewer, shorter journeys, much more slowly.”

Mercedes is the first of the world’s biggest luxury-car makers to put such a small engine on its top-of-the-line model. To meet emissions xstandards and win back customers like Empson, the manufacturers are flaunting their environmental credentials. BMW has invested 1.2 billion euros in fuel-saving technology, while Mercedes nearly doubled its investment on “green” development to 1 billion euros this year.