As oil prices keep soaring car makers are investing more and more into alternative fuels. Several car makers have plans to introduce electric or hydrogen powered cars but Mercedes seems to be the first that has plans to completely ditch petroleum cars. According to some sources like Tree Hugger the German car makers aims to make its entire lineup petroleum-free by 2015:

If you want to achieve great things, you have to set bold goals and then do your best to meet them. Mercedes now has the first part of the equation down, lets hope they can deliver on the execution.

Their plan is to make their whole car lineup petroleum free in 7 years. To do that, they’re looking at battery electric cars, fuel cells, and more efficient combustion engines that can run on biofuels (lets hope that by then we have truly sustainable ethanol and biodiesel). “The company have already spent £2million on their new long-term Sustainable Mobility plan and are set to invest a further £7billion before 2014.” Of course, there’s a catch: A car that can run on biofuels can still run on fossil fuels, so without a good supply of sustainable biofuels, that’s probably how they’re going to be used. But still, a step in the right direction.