Marking another milestone in the Philippine automotive industry, CATS Motors, Inc. unveiled last Tuesday the Mercedes-Benz S400 L Blue Hybrid – the country’s first luxury hybrid sedan. The S400 is powered by hybrid drive system that utilizes a highly advance electric motor system matched to an internal combustion engine for better driving performance, fuel efficiency and lesser emission.

Greg Yu and Felix Ang, chairman and president of CATS Motors, Inc., respectively, led the launching of the S400 L Blue Hybrid, which is also the first passenger car model with a hybrid system to be introduced by Mercedes-Benz.

Aside from the Philippine market, the S400 L is also the first luxury sedan to be unveiled in Southeast Asia, Yu emphasized.

Yu and Ang said that the Mercedes Benz’s new breed, which has a tag price of P10.2 million (P11.8 million for the higher variant), will allow them to make a statement in the local automotive scene by introducing hybrid system for luxury vehicles.

“It is not just about bragging rights being the first in Southeast Asia. It is our way of making a statement,” Yu said. “We are showing our responsibility by helping conserve fossil fuel for the future generations and preserving the environment with lesser emission.”

Using the equally luxurious S 350 as its base model, the S400 L is likewise powered by a 3.5 liter V-6 engine that unleashes 299 horses and maximum torque of 385 nm at an rpm range from 2,400 to 5,000.

The S 350 is currently priced at P9.5 million, or plus one million if you’re opting for the S 400 L with the hybrid drive system that has an additional magneto-electric motor and the 7G-Tronic seven speed automatic transmission specially designed for the hybrid module.

According to Andrew Ridsdale, MB Daimler Central’s assistant manager for Africa and Asia, the engine performance of the S400 and S350 is almost the same but the edge of the former is translated in a remarkable fuel efficiency with a consumption of 7.9 liters per 100 kilometers (New European Driving Cycle) despite having a V-6 power plant.

The S400 L has an added weight of 79 kilograms with the hybrid system over the S350. The NDCC data also showed that the S350 consumes around 10 to 10.2 liters per 100 kilometers.

With the hybrid technology, the S400’s 0-100 kilometer per hour sprint run was pegged at 7.2 seconds while the S350 settled for 7.3 seconds, CATS’ data showed.

Under the hybrid system, the compact-size lithium-ion battery – secured on the upper right side of the engine room – is used to store kinetic energy generated by an electric motor when the vehicle is decelerating and braking. The Hybrid’s electric motor mounted in between the engine and the transmission also functions as a starter and generator.

Mercedes-Benz started developing the hybrid system some 20 years ago but it was only in April 2006 when they formally rolled out from the assembly plant the S 400 luxury sedans, Ridsdale said.

To ensure the system’s reliability and dependability, the MB hybrid testing technology was subjected to extensive testing and evaluation with at least 200 test vehicles configured with some 10 million kilometers covered for its purpose.

Confident of its reliability in a flood-prone country like the Philippines, Ridsdale said that the S400’s lithium-ion battery is secured on a pressure-tight box that prevents moisture or water from penetrating it. He also claimed that the ion battery technology, developed by the Evonik Li-Tec in which Daimler has a 49.9 percent share, can last for a lifetime.

Also, the hybrid technology of the S400 L is secured with a seven-point safety concept, including an automatic switch off for the high voltage system within fractions of a second in the event of an accident.