Volvo has major plans for fuel-saving technology. The Swedish automaker will begin fitting its bricks shapely little sedans and coupes with stop/start in the next few months and plans to move the technology up through its entire line shortly thereafter. Of course, the automaker offers diesel engines in Europe and is strongly considering bringing them Stateside as well. What’s most exciting, though, is news that the automaker will combine its diesel engines with an advanced hybrid system by 2012. The Volvo system will be a full hybrid with either oil-burning or electric power driving the vehicle without assistance from the other, or the two can be combined. Front wheels would be motivated by the traditional diesel engine while the rear wheels would be motivated by electricity.

Following the diesel hybrid would be a plug-in version of a large car or crossover. Once that’s ready, the automaker will begin phasing the hybrid technology downward to its smaller cars.

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By the middle of the next decade Mercedes-Benz wants its entire lineup to be able to operate entirely free of petroleum. The German giant is working on a variety of technologies that will help provide crude oil free transport such as battery electrics, fuel cells and highly efficient internal combustion engines that can operate on biofuels. Mercedes has recently been letting European journalists sample some of these new powertrains at a test facility in Spain.

The F700 concept that debuted last fall in Frankfurt is powered by a turbocharged DiesOtto engine. The DiesOtto is Mercedes’ branding for a combined HCCI and spark ignition engine that provides nearly the same efficiency as a diesel without the need for the expensive after-treatment systems. This and conventional diesel engines can run on biofuels and Mercedes hopes to launch the DiesOtto in production by 2010. Mercedes is also currently field testing electrically-driven vehicles with both batteries alone and fuel cells each of which they also plan to launch at the beginning of the decade. While it may well be that all Mercedes models in 2015 will be capable of running petroleum free, the reality is that many - if not most - will still be using fossil fuels much of the time. That may come in the form of coal for electricity, natural gas reformed into hydrogen, or petroleum fuels blended with biofuels. But you have to start somewhere.

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