The Group has already made substantial progress regarding passenger cars and commercial vehicles in recent years by optimizing the internal combustion engine.

Reduced fleet consumption. DaimlerChrysler has reduced the fuel consumption of its passenger car fleet in Germany by 30 percent since 1990. These savings were made possible by the introduction and refinement of CDI diesel technology, the seven-speed automatic transmission 7G-TRONIC, downsizing concepts with superchargers, and gasoline direct injection. This fuel consumption level was maintained by the passenger car fleet in 2006 in spite of opposing one-time effects such as the model updates of the smart fortwo and the C-Class and the discontinuation of the smart forfour.

DaimlerChrysler will forge ahead with its development of technologies to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions and will offer a range of these technologies on the market. These include the rollout of the second-generation direct injection system (stratified direct injection) – in 2006, DaimlerChrysler became the world’s first automaker to introduce this technology – the introduction of start-stop systems, initially with the smart at the end of 2007, and the intensified market introduction of BLUETEC and hybrid automobiles.

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In the U.S., the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards set the legal framework for improving energy efficiency. According to these standards, manufacturers’ passenger car fleets are weighted in line with sales, and for model year 2007 they must have average values below 8.6 liters per 100 kilometers for cars and 10.6 liters per 100 kilometers for light-duty trucks.

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Since 1996, DaimlerChrysler has improved its fleet values for light-duty trucks, decreasing fuel consumption by approximately 7 percent during this period. The much more stringent standards recently approved for light-duty trucks starting with the model year 2007 represent a challenge that the Group will meet by focusing intensively on technological development.

In the U.S., manufacturers of passenger cars (not including minivans, SUVs or pickups) that do not consume less than 10.5 liters per 100 kilometers are subject to a “gas-guzzler tax.” This tax does not differentiate between small, midsized and premium vehicles in the passenger car segment, for example, and is intended to reduce the production and sale of vehicles with high fuel consumption in the U.S. Due to its high percentage of premium-segment vehicles, DaimlerChrysler had to pay gas-guzzler taxes in 2006 for its passenger cars imported to the U.S. from Europe.

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In Japan the “Top Runner” concept has fixed binding upper limits for fuel consumption from 2010 for nine passenger car classes, grouped according to gross vehicle weight. The targets for 2010 have already been achieved in two vehicle classes.

With long-distance trucks like the Mercedes-Benz Actros, for example, DaimlerChrysler has been leading the field for years in terms of fuel economy.