Elite Traveler Summer 2022

MERCEDES-BENZ On average, it takes automakers a handful of years to bring a vehicle from sketch to market. The newest concept fromMercedes-Benz, the fully electric Vision EQXX, began a scant two years ago. With a range of 620 miles on a single charge (that’s 6.1 miles per kilowatt hour, a “crazy low” consumption according to Malte Sievers, an EQXX development engineer), the vehicle is compelling. It’s also the darling of Ambition 2039, Mercedes Benz’s plan to have a completely CO2-neutral fl eet of passenger cars and vans by the aforementioned year. The brand proposed a drastic shift in value chain and life cycle to be implemented a full 11 years before it is required by European Union legislation. “We are accelerating our innovation speed and bringing new, sustainable technologies into series production as quickly as possible,” according toMarkus Schäfer, chief technology o ffi cer for Mercedes-Benz Group AG. While broad, sweeping statements have the ability to pressure other manufacturers, it’s the details that demonstrate true commitment. Rollout has already begun. Still in its halo model phase, Vision EQXX uses CO2-reduced fl at steel in its body. “Green steel,” as Sievers refers to it, is produced entirely from scrap in an electric arc furnace, reducing CO2 emissions by 70%. (By contrast, the traditional blast furnace emits an average of more than two tons of CO2 per ton of steel produced.) Not only are parts of CO2-reduced steel already “in initial applications” throughout the current A-Class and E-Class, the new C-Class and the EQE, but Mercedes-Benz took an equity stake in a Swedish start-up that is currently prototyping a steel with iron made from hydrogen (instead of coking coal). That willingness to go outside of its own research and development to pursue partnerships, and facilitate and incorporate new technologies — in addition to increasing the amount of recycled and sustainable materials developed in-house — establishes the wide-reaching possibility for varied collaborations. Vision EQXX from $138,500, mercedes-benz.com

Clockwise from top left Lamborghini’s photovoltaic plant; Mercedes-Benz Mercedes

Vision EQXX concept; Audi e-tron S Sportback

LAMBORGHINI The Raging Bull likely isn’t a brand consumers associate with sustainability. Lamborghini began this year by announcing four vehicle debuts featuring internal combustion engines, a curious move considering the vast majority of manufacturers are focusing their energies on alternative fuel sources. While the company’s fi rst V12 hybrid is set to debut in 2023, with full electri fi cation by 2026, this isn’t the fi rst time Lamborghini has taken its time entering a mass-market shift. Now its best-selling vehicle, Urus launched in 2017, years after luxury SUVs rose to dominate the sector. What may surprise, however, is the decade-long Lamborghini photovoltaic plant, the largest in the region, has allowed a reduction of 2,000 tons of CO2. While leather and carbon fi ber remain a predominant part of vehicle production, in 2020 the company recovered 56%of all special manufacturing waste, recycling it into small leather goods and sub-products. Lamborghini may be in the pulse-quickening, hair-blowing-in-the-wind business, thanks to supercars like the 5.2-liter V10 naturally aspirated Huracán STO, but many don’t know they’re also purveyors of honey. Six years ago, the company installed an apiary with roughly 600,000 bees inside Lamborghini Park. Every year 948 lbs of honey is produced, a Christmas gift to employees. 2021 Lamborghini Huracán STO from $327,838, lamborghini.com commitment to eco-initiatives throughout the Sant’Agata Bolognese facility. Since 2010, the

AUDI “We don’t just want to buy o ff sets,” Spencer Reeder, Audi’s director of government a ff airs and sustainability, told Elite Traveler . One of the facets of Audi’s Mission: Zero program aims for carbon neutrality (versus o ff sets) throughout its network, including manufacturing, suppliers, dealer operations and logistics, to name a few. Audi released a 127-page sustainability report in 2019 outlining its objectives for Mission: Zero. Last year, the automaker took a page from the Microsoft handbook and introduced an internal sustainability fund. Within it is an internal carbon price, “which means every time someone on the executive team gets on a plane, they pay into the sustainability fund. We put a price on pollution to change behavior,” Reeder explained. The Four Rings have a series of fi rsts: fi rst carbon neutral alloywheel (on the e-tronGT), one of the fi rst plants to have net-zerowater waste cycle, plus a pair of ‘largests’ —the largest commercial rooftop solar system in Europe and the brandwith the largest fully electric portfolio in theworld (e-tron SUV, e-tron Sportback, e-tron GT/RS, e-tronGT, Q4 e-tron, Q4 Sportback e-tron). What’s striking is Audi’s commitment —both broad and narrow— to ecologically considerate methodologies. It’s been a notable about-face for the brand, which was embroiled in controversy in the 2008 Dieselgate scandal. Reeder, who joined Audi in 2018, said, “The leadership was really serious about pivoting the company, and I think we have.” 2021 Audi e-tron GT from $102,400 (not including the eligible $7,500 federal tax credit), audi.com

Photos Luca Locatelli, Mercedes-Benz AG