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VW joins Daimler's protest of new A/C refrigerant as EU deadline for compliance passes

The case of Dupont and Honeywell's refrigerant R-1234yf is doing the exact opposite of keeping things cool. The two chemical companies have spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing R-1234yf to replace R-134a, the new refrigerant shown to be 99.7-percent kinder to the environment than the one it is meant to succeed. Part of that development has been years of testing by governments, outside safety agencies and automakers to approve the chemical for use in cars. It passed the protocols necessary for the European Union to declare that new and significantly revised cars from 2013 onward needed to use R-1234yf, and mandated that every car as of 2017 must use it.
Enter Daimler AG. The automaker created a head-on collision test with a B-Class at their Sindelfingen test track that would lead to the pressurized refrigerant being sprayed on the engine. The result in 20 out of 20 test was that the refrigerant burst into flames as soon as it hit the hot engine, while Daimler says that R-134a does not catch fire in the same test. Another unexpected result of the R-1234yf test was the release of hydrogen flouride, a chemical far more deadly to humans than hydrogen cyanide, emitted in such amounts that it that turned the windshield white as it began to eat into the glass.
Said a Daimler engineer in a Reuters piece, "It was scarcely believable. The most complicated lab tests conducted using the most sensitive measuring instruments around found nothing and all we do is drive a car around a couple of times, open a tiny hole in the refrigerant line and the next thing you know the car is on fire." So Daimler said it wouldn't use the refrigerant, and it recalled the cars it had already shipped with R-1234yf.

Mercedes-Benz engines with 48-volt systems coming in 2017

As part of a big green push announced yesterday, Mercedes-Benz is jumping into the world of 48-volt power. The company will launch a new family of efficient gasoline engines next year and will begin rolling out 48-volt systems with it, likely in its more expensive cars first. Mercedes will use the 48-volt systems to power mild-hybrid functions like energy recuperation (commonly called brake regeneration), engine stop-start, electric boost, and even moving a car from a stop on electric power alone. These features will be enabled through either an integrated starter-generator (Mercedes abbreviates it ISG) or a belt-driven generator (RSG). (RSG is from the German word for belt-driven generator, Riemenstartergeneratoren. That's your language lesson for the day.) Mercedes didn't offer many other details on the new family of engines. There are 48-volt systems already in production; Audi's three-compressor SQ7 engine uses an electric supercharger run by a 48-volt system, and there's a new SQ5 diesel on the horizon that will use a similar setup with the medium-voltage system. Electric superchargers require a lot of juice, which can be fed by either a supercapacitor or batteries in a 48-volt system. Why 48-volt Matters: Current hybrid and battery-electric vehicles make use of very high voltages in their batteries, motors, and the wiring that connects them, usually around 200 to 600 volts. The high voltage gives them enough power to move a big vehicle, but it also creates safety issues. The way to mitigate those safety issues is with added equipment, and that increases both cost and weight. You can see where this is going. By switching to a 48-volt system, the high-voltage issues go away and the electrical architecture benefits from four times the voltage of a normal vehicle system and uses the same current, providing four times the power. The electrical architecture will cost more than a 12-volt system but less than the complex and more dangerous systems in current electrified vehicles. The added cost makes sense now because automakers are running out of ways to wisely spend money for efficiency gains. Cars can retain a cheaper 12-volt battery for lower-power accessories and run the high-draw systems on the 48-volt circuit. The industry is moving toward 48-volt power, with the SAE working on a standard for the systems and Delphi claiming a 10-percent increase in fuel economy for cars that make the switch.

Project Maybach is an absurd, awesome off-road electric coupe

Mercedes has created some mighty unusual concepts for the Maybach luxury brand. The Exelero high-speed test car and the Ultimate Luxury SUV sedan come to mind. But the Project Maybach, designed in collaboration with late fashion designer Virgil Abloh, may be the wildest yet, being an electric off-road coupe. It's not just the fact it's a two-door off-road coupe. It's the fact that it's a nearly 20-foot-long two-door off-road coupe. And it has very traditional proportions and lines, with a gargantuan front end, and a somewhat less gargantuan rear end. It's squared-off, but in a more elegant, midcentury luxury car way than say, a Hummer. And of course, it has a huge chrome grille and highly embellished taillights, complete with Maybach logos. And yet, this old-school coupe sits high off the ground. It rolls on small, steel-style wheels with chunky tires. It even has skid plates, bolt-on fender flares, rock rails and a roll cage with a roof basket. It's all painted in a matte tan paint that makes it look like a desert-ready expedition vehicle. It's even arguably practical for expedition work. The somewhat spartan-looking interior has tan leather seats that recline fully flat for sleeping. Being an electric car with long areas unoccupied by people, plus that roof basket, it likely has loads of cargo space. On the hood are solar panels that might provide a bit of range, but would at least be handy for recouping some power for accessories. The interior seems to have additional storage bins and tools stowed in special compartments around the cabin. As for the actual performance and range, well, Mercedes has nothing specific. That's not entirely surprising, since this seems to be solely a design exercise. As such, don't expect to see a production model anytime soon. Then again, off-road luxury vehicles are certainly popular. Maybe Mercedes would consider it if there were enough seriously wealthy customers expressing interest. Related video: