Mercedes B Class F-Cell Hydrogen launched

Mercedes has announced that it is launching a hydrogen fuel cell car – the Mercedes B Class F-Cell – for lease

Things look like they may be starting to turn in favour of Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles. We had news the other day that a Hydrogen Highway in London is being created, and this morning comes confirmation from Mercedes that they are launching the Mercedes B Class F-Cell.

The B Class F-Cell will go in to limited production later this year, and be leased to 200 customers in Europe and the US.

The electric motor on the F-Cell is reckoned to be comparable to a 2.0 litre petrol car, but can manage the equivalent of 86.6 mpg. But it doesn’t suffer from the drawbacks of plug-in electric cars, taking just 3 minutes to refuel. It produces 134bhp and 215lb/ft of torque and has a range of around 250 miles between re-fills.

In addition to the electricity produced by the hydrogen fuel cell, the F-Cell can recover energy lost under braking and acceleration and stores it in a 35kw lithium-ion battery, and the F-Cell set-up leaves space in the B-Class the same as in a regular-engined car.

Mercedes also say that they have cracked one of the issues with fuel-cell technology – low temperature function – and the B-Class F-Cell will work normally down to -25C.

This is just the start. There’s a long way to go on hydrogen production to make it cost effective and clean, but this is the right route to go for an oil-free car future.