Innovation at DaimlerChrysler

Chairman and CEO Jürgen Schrempp believes that in the next 15 years, car technology and design will move ahead more rapidly than at any time in the past half century-and that almost everything except the basic four-wheel layout could change.

“Positive change mostly begins with an innovation, with a great idea, with creativity.” With that observation, Jürgen Schrempp, Chairman of the Board of Management and CEO of DaimlerChrysler AG, opened the company's annual automotive Innovation Symposium at Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart: “In the next 15 years, the car will develop at a much more rapid pace than in the last 50 years. More likely than not, its four wheels will be the only thing to remain.”

Innovation has long been a DaimlerChrysler (and before that Daimler-Benz) criterion for success. The company has consistently managed to meld new technology and leading-edge solutions with proven engineering, design and manufacturing techniques. A clear example of that is the 300SL Mercedes-Benz of the early 1950s, with its very high performance (for its time), direct-injection gasoline engine and its unique body style with huge “gull-wing” doors. It is one of the world's most famous cars. Yet DaimlerChrysler has also used innovation to create an extraordinarily wide range of cars, currently stretching from the Smart and A-Class to the S-Class, SL, and the new Maybach. All have benefited from the company's investment in innovation.