Mercedes-Benz Makes a Small Bet on Hydrogen

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Battery electric cars are all the rage right now, with most of the major automakers promising to have one on the road within the next few years. But that doesn’t mean hydrogen is dead. To prove it, Mercedes-Benz will begin building hydrogen fuel cell cars this fall and offer them to customers next year.

The F-Cell is built on the company’s B-Class compact car platform. It has a 136-horsepower electric motor that produces 213 pound-feet of torque. Mercedes didn’t provide any performance specs but says the car is on par with a similar-size vehicle with a 2.0-liter gas engine. Top speed is 105 mph.

Mercedes was similarly stingy with details about the fuel cell, saying only that “gaseous hydrogen reacts with atmospheric oxygen at 700 bar.” The car is said to be able to start at temperatures as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius. It has a range of 385 kilometers (about 240 miles), but Mercedes didn’t say how much hydrogen it carries. There’s also a 1.4 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery “to boost power” and store energy recovered from the regenerative braking system.

Don’t expect to see a lot of F-Cells on the road. Mercedes says the first run is limited to 200 cars and concedes the obvious point — these cars won’t catch on in big numbers until we’ve got a hydrogen fueling infrastructure. To that end, Mercedes says it is working with government agencies, energy companies and utilities in Germany and California to get that ball rolling.

No word on the price.
Mercedes-Benz Makes a Small Bet on Hydrogen | Autopia | Wired.com