Mercedes-Benz reinvents the automobile

A hydrogen-powered fuel cell that emits water powers the new and very green Mercedes-Benz F CELL.

 

Green cars typically don't turn heads in eco-obsessed San Francisco, where hybrids are common and even $100,000 electric Tesla Roadsters aren't rare. But when a trio of Mercedes-Benz F CELL cars recently trolled the city's streets, hands waved and horns honked. For it's not often that you catch a concrete glimpse of the future.

 

Mercedes brought these four-door, B-Class machines to the city by the bay as part of a 125-day, January-to-June, 18,000-mile global trek to mark the 125th anniversary of Carl Benz's invention of the automobile. In many ways, these cars represent as radical a leap as when Benz first introduced his motorized contraption. While the alt-fuel focus of most auto companies remains gas-electric and pure electric engines, a few companies remain committed to the so-called fuel cell vehicle.

 

In the simplest terms: A fuel cell-powered car carries tanks filled with hydrogen, which when exposed to oxygen generate electricity that's stored in lithium-ion batteries. The main emission is simple water. Mercedes' F CELL can get about 400 kilometers (250 miles) per four-kilogram tank of hydrogen, which means about a $48 fill-up at a European hydrogen depot. The F CELL's potential leaves one particular engineer almost giddy.

via ca.autos.yahoo.com