The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a range of executive cars manufactured by Mercedes-Benz in various engine and body configurations produced since 1993. Prior to 1993, Mercedes-Benz offered the same category of car under a non-unified naming structure. The E initially stood for Einspritzmotor (German for fuel injection engine); a new feature in volume production vehicles at the time that the E-Class first appeared, with the E as a suffix to the engine nomenclature (e.g. 230E) in the 1960s.