WHEN the world’s oldest car maker attends the world’s oldest motor show there’s bound to be plenty to talk about.
But there was no dwelling on the past when Mercedes opened up proceedings at this year’s Paris Motor Show.
With the 125th anniversary of Carl Benz filing his patent for the automobile only months away, the German car maker is now at the forefront of the electric revolution which is sweeping the car industry.
Within a year an electric version of the Mercedes A-Class family-sized hatchback will be on the market with a range of about 120 miles from a single charge.
The A-Class E-Cell will join the growing number of electric vehicles coming on stream from virtually every major car company.
As Dr Dieter Zetsche, Mercedes’ chief executive, quipped on a French theme the role of the car is now liberté, égalité and e’mobilité.
Wherever you looked among the millions of pounds worth of metal on show in Paris, electric vehicles were everywhere.
Peugeot has them, Citroen has them, MINI has them, Renault has them – even Jaguar is in on the game, albeit it in concept form, with its C-X75 turbine hybrid supercar that almost defies convention.
The new revolution in France even stretches to two wheels with smart, MINI and Peugeot among those revealing electric scooters.
The significance is not that the car companies expect we all drive around in weird and whacky shapes such as the Kia Pop EV concept but that we are entering a new dawn of motoring.
Just as mobile phones and the Internet have exploded on to the scene in the past decade, so will roadside charging points to feed the new breed of city cars.
But the arrival of plug in, zero emission everyday cars does not signal the end of the combustion engine or the thrill of performance driving.
In fact, what is round the corner is a new generation of mass production cars so sophisticated they would almost have been unimaginable only a few years ago.
Ford’s new Focus is a perfect example.
Shown at Paris for the first time in production ready form in hatch, estate and ST shapes, the car is light years ahead of the original from the 1990s.
What was once big car equipment such as blind spot alerts, cruise control, air conditioning and digital audio systems are now going to be available on the most basic family hatch.
The next phase is the integration of ‘smart’ phone technology into the car’s onboard systems synchronising not just music files but navigation and other data files bringing Internet connectivity on the move to another dimension.
Interior trim qualities are also improving beyond comprehension bringing big car feel to virtually any level.
Yet the overriding theme throughout the Paris show was saving energy.
Whether that is being driven by legislation to reduce emissions, a green conscience to stop using fossil fuels or just a way of keeping mobility affordable is irrelevant.
The latest petrol engines are some 20 per cent more efficient than those of just a couple of years ago – diesels even more – so no matter what shape or size of car you drive there are more miles to be had per gallon.
Range Rover is promising almost 60mpg from its new Evoque 2.2-litre diesel – and that’s a car of true SUV proportions.
But perhaps Mercedes, as the daddy of them all, should have the final say on eco-activities at the motor show which since 1898 has been the showcase for the world’s car industry.
Not only does the German car firm have battery cars and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in its manifest it has also just produced the world’s most fuel efficient limo – an S-Class powered by a four cylinder diesel engine which can average 50mpg.
It’s a twist of technology which sees huge developments in vehicle technology arriving alongside alternative power sources for the cars of tomorrow.
France is no stranger to revolution and for the next two weeks the square mile of the Paris exhibition centre will be the home to the greatest concentration of electric vehicles the world has ever seen.
History in the making - and fuel for thought if ever there was.