Mercedes Swaps Glue For Screws In Search Of Sustainability

No matter what happens here in the United States, Europe is still concerned about this whole “habitable planet” thing — at least a little bit. Sure, Germany and its automaking economy may be pushing back against the concept of breathable air, but it seems even those holdouts are environmentalists in other ways. Take Mercedes, for instance, which has some new plans to make its cars a little less wasteful: Make subassemblies more repairable, rather than replaceable, and build cars out of materials mined from other older cars.

Mercedes has a new effort it’s calling “Tomorrow XX,” which focuses on making its cars a little bit friendlier to this pale blue dot we all share. One of the proposals within that effort, though, is more than just a step for environmentalism — it’s a win for enthusiasts, tuners, and right-to-repair fans the world over. Rather than unfixable, glued-together headlights, Mercedes wants to return to assembling fixtures with screws so individual components can be repaired or replaced. 

Headlights are the example Mercedes used, but it’s easy to see that design ethos leaking into other components the company uses. It’s also easy to see the environmental benefits — rather than a scratched or broken lens forcing an owner to ship their entire headlight off to be e-waste, that individual component will be replaceable with new glass. That means less waste, which is a good way to be kind to the Earth. 

It’s a shrewd business decision, too. Lithium is in short supply, rare-earth magnets are subject to the whims of international trade, and copper prices are some of the highest they’ve ever been. If Mercedes can start replacing the more disposable, external components of subassemblies like headlights without touching the pricey internals, the company can manufacture more of the former and less of the latter — replacing the cheap stuff rather than the expensive stuff is a nice cost-saving move. And, if it gets the automaker some nice press for its environmental ambitions along the way, what’s wrong with that?