The current practice of blending fossil fuels and crop-derived fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel is already helping to enhance the environmental balance sheet for road traffic.

DaimlerChrysler has committed itself to supporting activities that exploit the potential of biofuels more consistently than has previously been the case. More specifically, it is committed to creating the technologies that will ensure that vehicles can run on fuels with up to 10 percent admixtures of biofuels. Appropriate quality standards for biofuels need to be defined in cooperation with the oil industry. As a member of the Alliance for Synthetic Fuels Europe (ASFE), which was founded in 2006 by automakers and oil companies, DaimlerChrysler will continue to promote the use of synthetic fuels.

Bioethanol and biodiesel – fuels from plants. All Jeep® Grand Cherokee diesel vehicles leave the factory with an initial filling of B5 biodiesel. This fuel contains a five-percent blend of biodiesel from soybeans.

Biomass-to-liquid (BTL) – the second, current generation of biofuels. Testing of Mercedes-Benz diesel engines has shown that switching to synthetic fuels such as BTL would reduce particulate emissions by as much as 30 percent and cut emissions of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons by as much as 90 percent.

In cooperation with DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen, CHOREN Industries has developed the biogenic diesel fuel SunDiesel, which it will produce in the course of 2007 on an industrial scale. The environmental “balance sheet” of SunDiesel shows that, compared to conventional fuels, as much as 90 percent of CO2 emissions can be prevented along the entire BTL value chain comprising cultivation, fuel production and use. Mercedes-Benz intends to fill the tanks of all new vehicles leaving its production plants with SunDiesel as soon as an adequate supply of the fuel is available.

Hydrogen – the fuel of the future. Before the fuel cell drive can be brought to market, progress has to be made in assuring the production of hydrogen from renewable sources and the construction of a hydrogen supply infrastructure. Both of these tasks call for cooperation between governments, the oil industry, the energy sector and other potential investors. As a partner in such efforts, DaimlerChrysler is taking part in the Clean Energy Partnership (CEP) in Europe and in the FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership initiative in the U.S.