Mercedes-Benz has invested 800 million euros ($US697 million) to develop its redesigned E-class and a further 1.2 million euros on revamped production facilities.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
“But,” sales and marketing head Dr Joachim Schmidt told journalists at the international press launch at Valencia’s City of Art and Sciences, “investing two billion euros is no guarantee of building a good car.”
Instead, Schmidt said, the company developed an “innovative E-class in expectation of becoming the segment’s market leader”.
M-B plans to produce 200,000 of the new E-class cars this year and “meet the high level of demand” with 250,000 in 2003.
Unlike BMW with its new 7-series (which competes with the Mercedes S-class), M-B has kept most of the innovation to the ‘oily bits’ and styled its new E-class in evolutionary rather than revolutionary fashion.
In Spanish traffic it was in fact rather difficult to immediately pick new Es being test-driven by the international media from the numerous locally-registered latest C- and S-class models.
But the innovation is definitely there in the E-class’ electrohydraulic brakes, (debuted with the new SL sports coupe but in volume production for the E), Airmatic dual control air suspension with ‘comfort’ and ‘sports’ settings, ‘intelligent’ safety systems and seats that inflate and deflate their side bolsters to hold front seat passengers in place during enthusiastic driving.
There’s also a new climate control system that can maintain a different temperature in each of four cabin zones, front and rear, and a further system that utilises solar cells located in the optional full-length ‘Panorama’ glass roof (with tilt/slide opening panel) to power fans that assist the a/c to reduce passenger head area temperatures.
The E has also adopted the S-class’ COMAND system for audio, video, phone and sat-nav (as an option) with, again optional, voice control.
The new E, which retains an updated interpretation of its predecessor’s ‘four-eyed’ nose styling, also has new four-link front suspension, a rollover sensor (a claimed first for a sedan), doubled use of aluminium for body panels and twin balancer shafts in the 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine option.
Five launch engines include the familiar petrol 2.4-litre and 3.2-litre V6s and five-litre V8 plus the turbodiesel 2.2 and (five-cylinder) 2.7-litre units. One more petrol motor and three new diesels, some all-new, are on the way. Three trim levels – Classic, Avantgarde and Elegance are again on offer with sporty AMG versions to follow.
New E-class sales begin in Europe and the USA next month while right-hand models reach the UK and other markets in August.
