A couple of years ago, I was driving an S500 from Stuttgart to Boxberg, flattening out those endless mountain roads with gobs of luscious torque and ironing out all the wrinkles in the back streets with its fabulous air suspension.

 

I thought to myself: how much better can Mercedes-Benz really make these cars? I mean, seriously, they are so good already that aside from adding incremental improvements like automatic parking systems, hands-free nose hair trimmers and other creature comforts, what more could they do? Then it dawned on me. They could take away a bit of the guilt.

 

And that’s exactly what Mercedes have done with the new S400 Hybrid

 

Welcome to a new world of luxury motoring. A cleaner world. A more responsible world. A world that will one day thank you for driving change. Hybrids may not be a new thing, of course - as of May last year, Toyota have sold over a million Priuses worldwide. However, Mercedes has taken the concept, placed it in their flagship vehicle and are slowly reinventing it.

 

Talk about a role reversal; 10 years ago you could have bet your last bratwurst that the Europeans would be the ones coming up with the technology, only for the Japanese to find a cheaper, smaller and more efficient way of doing it. Today, Mercedes has not just turned the tables by coming up with the world’s first lithium-ion battery hybrid vehicle, they’ve taken it a step further and bought half of the battery company, too.

 

The race is on; only this time the checkered flag is green. Let’s face it. As sentimental as some of us are about the throaty growl of a V8 or the blow-off valve of a turbocharged four, the internal combustion engine will eventually become obsolete (just like the typewriter, cassette tapes, film photography and Kanye West). It’s just a matter of time - and the winner will be the one who can do it in the least amount of effort.

 

Having driven the Prius, the Alphard and the Lexus LS600 Hybrid, I can safely say that Mercedes is in for an all out brawl here if they want to strip Toyota of the tree hugging crown. Toyota’s systems are so flawless, so developed and so rooted into their DNA that the S400 has got to pull out a handful of aces if they stand a chance.

 

With that parked safely at the back of my mind, it was time to fly off to Stuttgart to try out one of the most highly anticipated models to ever roll out of Sindelfingen.

 

I arrive at the Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Stuttgart to pick up my climate cooling white S400 Hybrid. Opening those heavy doors for the first time releases a rich scent of high quality leather that escapes from the warm cabin. I climb in and buckle myself into those almost infinitely adjustable (and generous) seats that have been filled with natural materials like wool and coconut fibers to further reduce its carbon footprint. It is an extremely classy place to pass the time, and one that is very familiar to any S-Class owner - the only giveaway is an elegant chrome badge to announce that I’m in the automaker’s first ever, all-new, production model hybrid.

 

It is eerily quiet. European countries for me are already double-digit-decibel-quieter than the background noise that frames Metro Manila’s organized chaos. But even with that in mind, this is still different. I’m cocooned in what feels like a vacuum-sealed vault and I haven’t experienced the familiar hum or faint current that even the quietest engines emit. When I paused long enough, I could hear my own facial hair growing. This is a car so quiet that silence itself would come in here if it needed to think.

 

Funny thing about luxury is that you get to a point where it’s no longer what you add, but rather what you take away that defines it. Eliminating engine noise may be just one step closer to pricking you with a needle full of anesthesia and waking you up when you get to your destination, but I have to admit, you do get used to it. You crave it as soon as you jump back into a “regular” vehicle.

 

Steering is still firm (with good communication with the road) yet light enough to not allow any fatigue to creep in. The air suspension does a magical job of keeping this big bruiser settled on the corners and sweet on the straights. I would like to say that it drives just as well as the full gasoline versions, but it actually drives a whole lot better.

 

The incredible thing here is that I can crack 100 kph from a standstill in 7.2 seconds. The difference is I feel like I’m still saving a whale somewhere in Antarctica while I do it. Even with the odd aggressive spurt and traffic light-to-traffic light drag race, I still averaged 11.5 km per liter. That’s impressive, considering that this is over two tons of precious metal we’re talking about. And with more conservative runs getting me 14 km per liter, this is not just a car - this is a breakthrough. It ranks up there with super low calorie beer - same buzz, less guilt.

 

Mercedes still uses the same principles as any other hybrid car to achieve this. A 15 kilowatt electric motor acts as a starter/generator and gets it off the line using power from the lithium-ion battery. During deceleration, the electric motor uses a process of recuperation to convert the kinetic energy into electrical energy in the exact same way as Lewis Hamilton’s KERS (kinetic energy recuperation system) -equipped McLaren does it in Formula One. Sounds all so simple, but nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Asides from propelling the S400 forward, the battery needs to supply power to the air conditioner, the steering pump and the partial vacuum required for brake servo assistance when the vehicle is “coasting” to a stop. The transmission also needed newly programmed software for its management system, while an all-new auxiliary oil pump was developed to ensure reliable lubrication of the transmission - even during the phases when the combustion engine is switched off.

 

The benefits are felt mostly in the city, but the S400 Hybrid also manages to save almost an extra liter of fuel per hundred km on the highway with the reduced belt drive, the electro-hydraulic power steering pump and A/C compressor, plus a new combustion process with a new engine control system and new camshaft load point shift during normal driving and through partial electric driving.

 

Interestingly enough, the S400 was intelligent enough to tell the difference between approaching a traffic light and when I was in a parking lot and didn’t want the engine off. All of this activity is displayed on a beautiful and large LCD screen in the center of the dashboard and serves as a fantastic conversation opener with new passengers.

 

But as socially responsible as hybrids are, they do have a dark side. Rather than sweep it under the proverbial rug, Mercedes chose to tackle an often overlooked area of this new technology.

 

Because hybrid technology is still considered to be in its infancy, there are a lot of areas in the manufacturing phase that needs to be addressed. For obvious reasons, manufacturers tend to focus solely on the vehicles’ emissions and fuel consumption without taking the environmental impact of its entire life cycle into consideration.

 

There was a damning report a couple of years back that suggested that the Prius left a bigger carbon footprint than the irresponsible Hummer H2 when you took into account the entire manufacturing process, including the smelting plants that needed to create the nickel and the impact it had on the environment when the vehicle was finally disposed. The report turned out to be bogus, but it did raise some key questions that Mercedes chose to address.

 

Firstly, by using lithium-ion batteries, they no longer require nickel, which eliminates the need for smelting plants. And by creating a vehicle that has an overall recycling rate of 95% (even when you factor in production, operation for 300,000 kilometers, recycling and disposal), the S400 Hybrid still produces 18% lower CO2 emissions than the comparative full gasoline model. It may not seem drastic, but this saving per vehicle corresponds to roughly 1.6 times the annual per capita emissions of the average European.

 

It’s beyond question that the S400 Hybrid is one of the most socially responsible vehicles on earth. More impressive is that it does so without sacrificing a drop of prestige, comfort, safety and luxury. It still comes equipped with all the cutting edge technology that has made the S-Class the most successful luxury saloon on earth - including active multi-contour seats that use inflatable air chambers to support the driver during cornering, crosswind stabilization, and Distronic Plus (that uses a radar based proximity control to maintain a set distance to the vehicle ahead and brings the vehicle to a standstill and accelerate it again). Plus, it has upped the ante in hybrid safety by introducing new features that immediately discharge the high voltage systems in the event of an accident.

 

As if it wasn’t enough to just invent the vehicle, Mercedes-Benz has decided to reinvent it. The all-new S400 represents a new dawn for luxury vehicles. It will be the standard by which cars AND car companies will be judged. Locally, CATS Motors Inc. offers the S400 Hybrid at P10.2 million. That seems like a large chunk of change. Then again, look at what it is changing.