The future is much greener at Mercedes-Benz with its Frankfurt arsenal dominated by hybrids, bluetech diesels and ultra-lean concepts pointing their way to the future.

A certain highlight was the radical new F700 concept vehicle featuring the innovative new Diesotto engine that claims to fuse the best aspects of both petrol and diesel engines.

Looking something like an S-Class from the future, the F700 is no earth glutton — in fact its CO2 emissions rating is a mere 127 grams per kilometre, putting it on par with a highly efficient city car in pollution terms. Driven carefully and it should be capable of sipping just 5.3 litres per 100km. That does not mean it’s a slouch by any stretch of the imagination — in fact its turbocharged 1.8 litre engine produces 175kW and 400Nm of torque and can produce an additional 15kW of power when coupled to its hybrid module.

While we can expect much of its technology to make it into production engines soon, far closer to fruition is the new E300 Bluetec, which is soon to be released in Europe. Its AdBlue injection process works in the exhaust system to reduce up to 80 percent of the nitrous oxides to harmless nitrogen and water. This is the cleanest diesel technology around and will soon make it into the ML, GL and R-Class models.

At the smaller end of the scale, the Smart brand showed off three ultra green cars in the Fortwo range. These included an electric version with a range of 115km, a 52kW hybrid version that emits 103 grams per km and the mhd hybrid Fortwo that will become the most environmentally friendly series-production car in the world, with a CO2 figure of just 88 grams per km.

But no Mercedes-Benz stand would be complete without a red-blooded racer or two. Enter the C63 AMG. Powered by a 6.3-litre V8 that puts out maximum power of 336kW at 6800rpm and top torque of 600Nm at 5000rpm. The high-revving naturally aspirated engine allows the high-performance estate to accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in a claimed 4.6 seconds, with top speed clocked at 250km/h (electronically limited).

And for the family man, the C-Class estate takes a prime spot on the Benz stand, following the market debut of the saloon only a few months ago.

Compared to its predecessor, the rear of the new estate is slanted far more steeply, a crucial factor for enlarging the vehicle's load volume. This now varies between 485 and 1500 litres, depending on the position of the split-folding rear seat. Measured against the outgoing C-Class estate, load capacity has been increased by as much as 146 litres.