STUTTGART, Germany — The Mercedes-Benz F800 Style, which will be unveiled at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show, introduces a new “multi-drive” platform that can accommodate a fuel cell or a plug-in hybrid powertrain. More importantly, its overall shape and styling preview the next-generation CLS sedan teased last month in Detroit.

The five-passenger F800 Style is fitted for the show with a 300-horespower, direct-injected gasoline V6 engine and a 109-hp electric motor integrated into the seven-speed automatic transmission. Mercedes claims a total output of 409 hp for the F800.

The concept’s hybrid powertrain provides 0-60 acceleration in 4.7 seconds, says Mercedes, with top speed limited to 155 mph. On pure electric power, the F800 has a claimed top speed of 75 mph and a range of just 18 miles.

The Mercedes F800’s lithium-ion battery pack can be recharged from household current or a local charging station. The V6, we assume, can be replenished by a visit to the gas station.

Mercedes says its F-Cell technology also could be adapted to the F800, bundling a 136-hp, rear-drive electric motor that generates 214 pound-feet of torque with a fuel cell stack. Range on this version is said to be nearly 375 miles.

The F800 incorporates a number of other advanced technologies, including an enhancement on the automaker’s COMAND system with a touchpad interface. A camera in the cabin records images of the user’s hand on the pad. A transparent image of the hand is displayed over the menu functions, which are operated by applying slight pressure to the touchpad. Mercedes says the system, which controls such functions as climate, audio, phone, navigation and Internet functions, reduces driver distraction.

Benz’s Distronic adaptive cruise control also gains added functionality. Now called Distronic Plus Traffic Jam Assistant, the system will be capable of automatically steering and following another vehicle into a curve at speeds up to 25 mph while regulating the distance between the two vehicles.

Next there’s the PreSafe 360-degree collision avoidance system, which extends monitoring to the area behind the vehicle, automatically engaging the brakes milliseconds before an anticipated rear-end collision.

Access to the Mercedes-Benz F800 Style concept is provided by conventional hinged front doors and rear pivot-and-slide doors that open rearward. Inside are lightweight seats made of magnesium and carbon-fiber, backed with fine netting and trimmed in wood veneer.

2009 is a year in which Mercedes-Benz celebrates several anniversaries in the safety field: in August 1939 the automotive safety pioneer Béla Barényi started his work at Mercedes-Benz in Sindelfingen. Regarded as the father of modern car safety, he invented a multitude of pioneering safety features. One example is the principle of the crumple zone, a trailblazing innovation which entered series production at Mercedes-Benz 50 years ago in 1959. With the help of its in-house accident research function, founded in 1969, Mercedes engineers in the following years have developed several groundbreaking innovations in passenger car safety. In this anniversary year, Mercedes-Benz is using the ESF 2009 research vehicle to reveal what its safety specialists are currently working on – with a time horizon that often extends well into the future.

The ESF 2009 is the first Experimental Safety Vehicle to be built by Mercedes-Benz since 1974.

Like its historic predecessors, it illustrates trailblazing innovations in the field of safety and makes the progress achieved clearly visible. These amazing but by no means crazy ideas include inflatable metallic sections which give more stability to structural components within fractions of a second, as well as the so-called “Braking Bag”. This airbag, housed within the vehicle’s floor, is deployed when a crash is deemed to be unavoidable, and uses a friction coating to support the vehicle against the road surface.

The ESF 2009 premiered yesterday, 15 June 2009, at the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV) Conference in Stuttgart.

“Safety is a central element of the Mercedes-Benz brand. In this respect we have been setting the pace in the market for almost 70 years for the benefit of our customers and for road users in general. The ESF 2009 shows that we still have plenty of ideas and the absolute will to lead the automobile industry in this field even in future”, says Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Cars.

The ESF 2009 was developed and built completely in the Mercedes-Benz test vehicle workshops in Sindelfingen.

This safety research vehicle, based on the Mercedes S 400 HYBRID, features more than a dozen safety innovations, most of which are fully functioning in demonstration mode.

“With the ESF 2009, we have chosen this particular time to clearly demonstrate the innovative strength of Daimler. Anybody examining the ESF 2009 in detail will recognise that more safety and improved energy efficiency are not necessarily a contradiction in terms. We want to make progress in both fields with new, trailblazing ideas “, says Dr. Thomas Weber, the member of the Daimler Executive Board responsible for corporate research and development at Mercedes-Benz Cars.

The following five innovations on the basis of the S 400 Hybrid are among the highlights of the ESF 2009:

* PRE-SAFE Structure: The inflatable metal structures save weight or increase the stability of structural components. When at rest, the metal section is in a folded state to save space. If its protective effect is required, a gas generator builds up an internal pressure of 10 to 20 bar within fractions of a second, causing the section to unfold for significantly more stability.

* Braking Bag: This auxiliary brake accommodated in the vehicle floor is a new type of PRE-SAFE® component. If the sensor system concludes that an impact is unavoidable, the Braking Bag is deployed shortly before the crash and stabilises the car on the road surface by means of a friction coating. The vehicle’s vertical acceleration increases the friction, and helps to decelerate the vehicle before the impact occurs.

* Interactive Vehicle Communication: The ESF 2009 is able to communicate directly with other vehicles, or via relay stations. Using “ad hoc” networks and WLAN radio technology, it is, for example, able to receive and transmit warnings of bad weather or obstacles in the road.

* PRE-SAFE Pulse: This further development of PRE-SAFE® is able to reduce the forces acting on the torsos of the occupants during a lateral collision by around one third. It does this by moving them towards the centre of the vehicle by up to 50 millimetres as a precautionary measure. As an active restraint system, it uses the air chambers in the side bolsters of the seat backrests.

* Spotlight lighting function: This partial LED main beam specifically illuminates potential hazards. If the infrared camera of Night View Assist PLUS detects, for example, deer at the roadside or pedestrians on the road, these can be briefly illuminated beyond the normal area covered by the main beams, as if by a spotlight.

Mercedes-Benz is also presenting an innovative PRE-SAFE Demonstrator at the 21st ESV Conference. For the first time this simulator uses a linear motor for this purpose, in order to accelerate the vehicle cabin to up to 16 km/h within a distance of four metres before the impact occurs.

The linear drive system, which is similar to that used by the Transrapid train, is freely programmable and also works in the opposite direction. This enables various acceleration profiles and also a rear-end collision to be demonstrated.

The special feature of this system is that the ‘vehicle occupants’ experience the effect of the PRE-SAFE®  functions live, such as seat belt pre-tensioning, NECK-PRO, and the inflatable side bolsters of the seats.

Mercedes-Benz is continuing a longstanding tradition with the ESF 2009: for the ESV Safety Conferences held in 1971 to 1975, the safety experts in Stuttgart built more than 30 experimental vehicles and subjected them to crash tests to satisfy the visionary safety requirements of that time.

Four of these ESFs (Experimental Safety Vehicles) were presented to the public, and many of the revolutionary ideas such as ABS or the airbag first entered series production at Mercedes-Benz.