7G-TRONIC is the world's first seven-speed automatic transmission. The increased number of possible ratios brings many benefits: a faster shifting response, improved acceleration, quieter running, greater driving pleasure. But it also offers less of something: fuel consumption.
The seven forward gears reduce the steps between the individual ratios significantly and thus enable fast, fuel-saving gear shifting. The reduced shift times also permit improved acceleration and faster intermediate sprints. It is only when you are really in a hurry that "less" is more: during full-throttle acceleration, the transmission automatically jumps individual ratios to attain the final speed as quickly as possible.