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Mercedes Aims for 1 in 5 New Car Sales to be Hybrid by 2015

Word around town is that Mercedes Benz expects 20 percent of its new car sales to be hybrid vehicles by 2015, and will embark upon a program of launching a new hybrid model every year from 2009 onwards to help it achieve this goal.

Tightening emiss


Word around town is that Mercedes Benz expects 20 percent of its new car sales to be hybrid vehicles by 2015, and will embark upon a program of launching a new hybrid model every year from 2009 onwards to help it achieve this goal.

Tightening emissions and fuel economy legislation - and an increased awareness of environmental issues among the buying public - has prompted Mercedes to broaden its range of eco-friendly offerings. The range right now consist of... yes, a bunch of diesels. The petrol-electric S400 BlueHYBRID is expected to launch sometime next year, while a GLK BlueTEC hybrid will follow soon after. Beyond those we don't know what to expect, but Mercedes indicates that it will continue to build fossil-fuelled cars for as long as there's a demand for them - another 20 to 30 years, by M-B's estimates.

While it's good to hear that Mercedes-Benz is keen to do its bit to reduce our dependence on oil, this news is at odds with previous reports that the automaker plans to remove fossil-fuel-powered vehicles from its model lineup COMPLETELY by 2015. Which do we believe? Is Mercedes backpedalling on an earlier promise, or have they simply realised their previous target date was a tad too unrealistic? We'll be keeping a close eye on this one...

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