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Daimler Mannheim Competence Center Turns 15

For the last 15 years, the Mercedes-Benz plant in Mannheim has been home of the Daimler Competence Center for Emission-free Mobility. The center has been in charge with developing several alternative drive systems for commercial vehicles and cars, with the goal set to develop an affordable array of green technologies.

As a pioneer for sustainable mobility, Daimler is developing a broad range of cutting-edge drive technologies for tomorrow’s transportation needs. Competence centers such as this one are transforming the latest research and development results into products for everyday use,” Christian Mohrdieck, head of Fuel Cell & Battery Drive System Development said.

The story began in 1994, when Daimler commissioned a small team to develop low-emission commercial vehicles from the drawing board all the way to series-production. So far, the center came up with an electric-drive Mercedes-Benz Sprinter (used by Deutsche Post DHL), a hybrid-drive Mercedes-Benz Vario and the first-generation natural gas-drive Sprinter.

Lots of inventions that were originally series-produced in commercial vehicles can now be found in cars,” Bernhard Heil, truck product engineering head added.

"However, environmental consciousness is also playing an increasingly important role. The best example of this is an innovation fleet of 50 Atego BlueTec Hybrid trucks that we will deliver to our customers for everyday use in 2010, thus demonstrating how we’re taking the lead in the industry here as well.

The Mannheim center employs 80 people. Together, they managed to manufacture 6,000 vehicles from a wide range of model series this year alone.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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