Mercedes-Benz has revealed details of a new engineering programme aimed at reducing the embedded carbon footprint of its future cars by rethinking how components are designed, manufactured and recycled.
Called Tomorrow XX, the initiative sets out what the German company describes as a “technical pathway to lower upstream CO2 output” – although most elements remain in early-stage development and Mercedes hasn't committed to production timelines or which models might be among the first to to benefit from the program.
Chief technology officer Jörg Burzer said Mercedes is currently evaluating “more than 40 different components to reduce emissions and to make materials easier to repair, separate and recycle”, in what he called a shift “beyond tailpipe emissions to those created before a new model even reaches the road”.
A main driver in the programme is the sheer volume of plastics used in modern cars. The average Mercedes model contains around 250kg of plastic parts, many of which are made from multiple bonded materials that are difficult or uneconomical to recycle. Tomorrow XX aims to redesign such components so they can be taken apart, repaired and reused rather than discarded.
One of the most advanced examples is a re-engineered headlight expressly conceived for disassembly. Instead of today’s sealed, glued-together units, the Tomorrow XX prototype uses screws to attach the lens, housing and internal modules. This makes each part replaceable without damage; a cracked lens, for instance, could be swapped without buying an entire new headlight.
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