Mercedes-Benz F-Cell hydrogen electric car, on B-Class platform
The Mercedes-Benz F-Cell is essentially a zero emission electric car that makes its own power on board. Unlike plug-in electric cars or PHEV hybrids, the F-Cell never needs gas, never needs recharging. You refuel it with hydrogen. It is the next generation of automotive technology, and it's coming to the U.S. next month.
The new Mercedes-Benz F-Cell makes its North American debut at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show, which begins on December 4, and it's unlike anything you've seen before. Not just the technology, but the car itself. It's built on the B-Class platform, a compact that is popular in Europe and Asia, but not yet available in North America. Not yet. Mercedes reportedly is planning to bring conventional B-Class models to North America soon, to feed our growing appetite for smaller cars.
The F-Cell B-Class has a range of about 240 miles and, running on compressed hydrogen, boasts an equivalent fuel mileage of 86.6 city-highway combined miles per gallon. In 2010, Mercedes will make 200 production F-Cell cars available to customers in the U. S. and Europe, under a special lease program for real-life testing.
Mercedes is not the first manufacturer to have a fuel cell car in active testing by 'regular' customers. The Honda FCX Clarity fuel-cell sedan and the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell SUV have been out there, on the same lease and report back system, for more than a year already. But it's great to add Mercedes and its research and marketing clout to the mix.
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Mercedes-Benz showed the F-Cell at the Frankfurt Auto Show this past September, where I saw it parked in a corner of the massive Mercedes display ares. The F-Cell was pretty much ignored in Frankfurt because all the attention was centered around the all-new spectacularly gorgeous gullwing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG supercar. And, I expect it will be the same in Los Angeles, where Mercedes also is showing the gullwing.
FYI -- I'm attending the Los Angeles Auto Show, where several manufacturers are introducing new green car models. Stay up to date with an RSS feed of my latest reports. Just click the button at the top of the page.
Comments
Now if only the retrograde Obama administration would built the hydrogen highway.
Been reading about this technology for 30 plus years and we all know that the Germans were hard at work with it during WW II.
Good to see it might come to fruition during my lifetime.
Thanks for the review,
Great to see that something I have been following since a boy might come to fruition during my lifetime. (I am 58) In fact the Germans were working on this before my time in WW II.
Lobbyists and big government have a way of slowing things like this down to a crawl.
Thanks for the review.
Low starting temps, high speeds, pure water emissions: the Mercedes Benz B-Class F-Cell is the real deal for fuel-cell-powered automobiles! Let’s hope MB isn’t the only company to market a full production fuel cell car. If you’re interested in fuel cells or other green technologies, check out www.greencollareconomy.com. It has hundreds of case studies on emerging green technology. It's also the largest b2b green directory on the web.
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