Technology advances for star limo
Mercedes-Benz is determined to show pretenders what it thinks semiautonomous driving should look like, with the upgraded S-Class range. Unveiled in China this week, the facelifted flagship includes a huge leap forward in self-driving, with its Intelligent Drive system capable of accelerating, braking and steering itself in a wider variety of situations than ever before.
Intelligent Drive, which uses advanced stereo camera and radar systems around the car to constantly feed data to its computers, is even designed to shift gears more aggressively under braking when it’s in the Sport mode. It identifies road infrastructure such as roundabouts and traffic islands and brakes to negotiate them and accelerates out again, doing both at different rates in different modes.
Besides moving its selfdriving strategies forward, the S-Class range will also debut the production versions of its 48V piggyback power system on its new in-line petrol six, which will be used to power an electric auxiliary compressor (eZV in Benz-speak), similar to the method Audi uses on the SQ7.
Fitted to the new 3.0l petrol engine, the system uses an extra lithium-ion battery pack to store energy from its Integrated Starter Generator (ISG) then adds cylinder-on-demand technology to pull its fuel consumption down even further.
The R-6 engine will have two output levels and its ISG is responsible for both boosting and charging and doesn’t need a belt-drive system stuck on the front of the engine, because all ancillaries (such as oil and water pumps) are electronically controlled and powered.
The eZV can spin up to 70,000r/min in less than 300 milliseconds, which leads Benz to claim it completely eliminates turbo lag and improves realworld performance and economy. Its efforts are combined with the ISG’s own ability to add 15kW of power and 220Nm of torque as an effective pseudohybrid power boost on the crankshaft, with the entire unit built in Benz’s flagship Untertürkheim plant in Germany.
It runs a standard 12v power network for conventional cabin systems, but its higher-voltage 48v system also runs the heavy demand technologies such as the air-conditioning system.
Though Benz has yet to release the output figures for the ISG-fitted R-6 engines, a technical workshop on the engine last year suggested it was capable of more than 300kW of power and more than 500Nm of torque while pulling 15% from the 3.0l V6 engine’s fuel consumption figures.
Mercedes adopts a more genteel version of the modular AMG twin-turbo 4.0l V8 for the S560. At 8.5l/100km (and 195g/km of CO2), its consumption is 10% better than the outgoing V8 turbo motor, despite delivering 345kW of power and 700Nm of torque.
The company will also introduce the most powerful turbodiesel engine it has ever stuffed into a passenger car, with the 2,925cc in-line six-cylinder motor pushing out 250kW of power and 700Nm of torque in the S400d model. The same engine delivers 210kW and 600Nm in the more affordable S350d version.
Though it’s a high-powered diesel, the S400d is still claimed to deliver a figure of 5.6l/100km and its emissions have been cut to 147g of CO2/km, while the S350d improves those numbers by 0.1l/100km and 2g.
There is a plug-in hybrid version on the way, with up to 50km of zero-emission range from its 13.3kWh lithium-ion piggyback battery, and there’s the option of a 7.2kW Wallbox charger, but don’t expect a fully fledged BEV (battery-electric
THE COMPANY HAS DELIVERED MORE THAN 300,000 OF THIS GENERATION S-CLASS SINCE IT LAUNCHED IN 2013
vehicle) S-Class. Benz prefers to keep that technology ringfenced inside its EQ brand.
“The development of the new S-Class was extremely extensive,” Daimler’s board member for research and passenger car development, Ola Källenius, says. “With a whole series of new features and functions the S-Class remains the technological pioneer.”
It’s hard to remember a time when the S-Class wasn’t the benchmark in volume production limousines, and now Benz’s heaviest four-door hitter will move the game on again.
It combines the latest evolutions of existing technologies, such as its Road Surface Scan, which it discovered by accident years ago when the converted data stream from its forwardfacing stereo camera kept showing two close spikes on each lap of its test track. One engineer suggested they might correlate to two bumps in the road at that point and the entire technology grew from there, enabling the Magic Ride system that started to iron out lowspeed bumps before they even got to the springs.
Its multichamber air suspension systems allow it to deliver a curve-tilting function that tilts the car in corners, like a motorbike (but less pronounced) to minimise the passengers’ perceptions of cornering forces.
Inside, it uses an evolution of its previous interior, but adopts some of the dashboard cues from the lauded E-Class interior. It has put a shield behind the outside edges of its two 12.3inch, high-resolution screens — which sit behind one long piece of glass — to prevent inquisitive fingers from fiddling with its wires and connections.
The fully digital screens have three preset display settings, from Classic to Sports and Progressive layouts, while there are 64 ambient lighting colours.
Mercedes is making a big thing of its “Energising Wellness” system in the new S-Class, which combines the efforts of the seat heating, ventilation and massage features, the fragrance distribution parts of the climate controlled air-conditioning, the lighting, the sound system and even the heating to allegedly alter the mood of the occupants.
With six preset combinations, Benz claims the 10-minute sessions can deliver Freshness, Vitality, Warmth, Joy and Comfort programs, along with three Training sessions, to all seats.
The company has delivered more than 300,000 of this generation S-Class since it launched in 2013 and it will immediately back it up with the MercedesMaybach version, which actually outsells the standard S-Class in some countries including SA.
The Maybach will run the same powertrain as the S560, though its extra equipment and mass mean its fuel economy will increase to 9.3l/100km.
Expect the new S-Class to glide into SA at the end of 2017.