With the F-CELL World Drive, Mercedes-Benz is focusing global attention on the potential of e-mobility with fuel cell technology and is furthermore demonstrating impressively that this technology is ready for large-scale production. The next step to be taken for the industrialisation of this guiding technology is the development of a comprehensive hydrogen infrastructure.
Leg 9 – Phoenix to Los Angeles:
On March 6th, the ninth leg led the B-Class F-CELL vehicles from Phoenix to Los Angeles, California. On its way to L.A. via San Diego, the F-CELL World Drive covered more than 478 miles (770 kilometres). At the end of the leg in Los Angeles, the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL – for the first and only time in the U.S.A. – were refuelled at a public station within only three minutes of time.
Leg 10 – Los Angeles to Sacramento:
On day 39 of the circumnavigation, the F-CELL World Drive embarked on the tenth leg, which leads north through the coastal state of California. The route takes the participants through San Francisco as well as to the Californian capital Sacramento. During this leg, the vehicles cover a total of 590 miles (950 kilometers). By staging local activities, like in San Francisco and Sacramento, Mercedes-Benz furthermore offers interested parties the possibility to gather information about the potential of fuel cell technology and the B-Class F-CELL. Moreover, a visit at Tesla Motors is part of this tenth leg.
Leg 11 – Sacramento to Salem:
On the eleventh leg, the F-CELL World Drive embarks from Sacramento, California, to Salem, which is the capital of the state of Oregon. Each of the vehicles covers a total of 540 miles (870 kilometers) – locally emission-free.
To view the American F-Cell World Tour legs 6-8, click here.
Infrastructure in the USA: California points the way forward
The F-CELL World Drive is particularly highlighting the still existing gaps of the global hydrogen infrastructure. By the end of the USA section of the tour on 18 March, the B-Class F-CELL vehicles will have been refuelled around 35 times on the route from Miami to Seattle – but only one of these refuelling procedures will have taken place at a public hydrogen filling station, located in the Greater Los Angeles Area.
“The American market is already active in the field of fuel cell technology, but like in Europe, there is still a need for development when it comes to infrastructure. Together with our regional partners, we want to point out the potentials of this technology and to get important lead markets ready for the rollout of a high number of electric vehicles with fuel cell technology,” says Dr. Thomas Weber, the Daimler AG Board Member responsible for Group Research and Development for Mercedes-Benz Cars. So far there are a few filling stations in California as well as on the East Coast of the USA, in the city of New York and also in Michigan. Most of the activities are currently taking place in California, however. Customers in the city of Los Angeles – where a number of Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL vehicles have been on the road since the end of 2010 – can already refuel their vehicles at five public hydrogen filling stations. Of these, three are equipped with the latest – and meanwhile globally standardized –700-bar technology which enables the tanks of B-Class vehicles to be filled in just three minutes for a range of about 400 kilometers.
Alongside further deliveries of B-Class vehicles with fuel cell drives to customers in the USA in 2011 and 2012, it is concretely planned to extend the supply network in American metropolitan areas. During a second stage they will then be linked up to each other. These steps will consequently spread fuel cell technology.
According to a study by UC Davis [1] , the basic supply of such zero-emission vehicles could be guaranteed with only about 40 hydrogen filling stations in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles. The State of California already provided an initial funding. Until today, 27 million US-Dollars went into the promotion of a hydrogen infrastructure. Another 14 million US Dollars is expected to be invested in 2011. For 2011 and 2012, the opening of further filling stations has been announced, four in the greater area of Los Angeles, two stations in the San Francisco Bay Area and 10 more stations in 2012. From 2012, a total of about 20 stations in California will supply electric vehicles with fuel cell technology with the necessary hydrogen.
These positive developments in the hydrogen infrastructure of California are also the result of Daimler AG’s almost 20-year commitment to fuel cell technology. For many years the company has been an active member of the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP), an amalgamation of automotive manufacturers, energy suppliers, government bodies and technology companies, and also the newly established Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA) in California.
The production of the necessary hydrogen today already provides a firm foundation for a future hydrogen infrastructure. The hydrogen industry in the USA could already supply up to 40 million vehicles. Pipelines, which can transport the hydrogen from the producers to the end-users, are already in place in many parts of the country.
