Exciting news from Mercedes-Benz this morning, the S 400 BlueHYBRID (notice MB’s use of caps again) will be available in the summer of 2009. This new hybrid won’t be limited to Europe; MB has announced that those in Europe will be able to purchase the S 400 BlueHYBRID in June of 2009, consumers in China can purchase the vehicle in August 2009 and those of us in the United States can get our hands on the new hybrid in September 2009.

From the Mercedes-Benz press release:

“The combination of a modified V6 petrol engine and a compact hybrid module makes the S 400 BlueHYBRID the world’s most economical luxury saloon with a spark-ignition engine. The NEDC combined fuel consumption is a mere 7.9 litres per 100 kilometres. This makes for the world’s lowest CO2 emissions in this vehicle and performance class - just 190 grams per kilometer.”

For those of us who are not on the metric system, this factors out to approximately 30 miles per gallon achieved from this 3.5-liter engine with 279 hp.