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Mercedes-Benz Offering Sprinter with Stop-Start System
1 September 2007
Mercedes-Benz is now offering, with immediate effect worldwide, a stop-start system—ECO-Start—for all Sprinter vans with diesel engines and manual transmissions.
In some cases, depending on application and traffic density, drivers will be able to cut fuel consumption by as much as 20%, according to Mercedes, although on average, the amount saved will probably be somewhere between five and eight percent.
If the vehicle starts to move, the engine starts to ensure that servo assistance for the steering and brakes is maintained. In all other cases the engine does not re-start until the clutch pedal is fully depressed. If the battery voltage is low or if an attempt by the system to start the engine has failed, the ECO-Start function is deactivated.
The driver can also deactivate the system by means of a button on the instrument panel.
To avoid cold starts on the one hand and overheating on the other, the system only operates at coolant temperatures of between 40°C and 100°C. When the outside temperature is below freezing point, the engine is not switched off.
September 1, 2007 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: mahonj | September 02, 2007 at 08:46 AM
@mahoni
...right, that only few people drive Prius or Civic Hybrid is a problem. Had the European Union promoted the Hybrid technology some years ago instaed of the Diesel technology, we would see a at least a 50% share of Hybrid cars in Europe.
If the German "premium" auto-factories would have developed Hybrid cars, the US-market would see more too.
Instead, we are palavering about getting Diesel clean or introducing a automatic start-stop system that in the northern hemisphere can hardly being use in winter.
Btw, my car has got a manual start-stop system. I only have to turn the ignition key! It took 120 years for car industrie to introduce a automatical working start-stop system. How poor is that?
Posted by: michel | September 02, 2007 at 10:13 AM
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If 50% of all cars in Europe were stop/start, this would save a lot more fuel than if 5% of them were full hybrid.
What matters is the individual saving times the number of cars, not having 1% trophy hybrids.
The full hybrids may show the way forward, but of they are too expensive, adoption will be slow.
Better to have a simpler system that lots of people can afford, like stop/start.