As expected, the feature concept car being shown by Mercedes-Benz at Frankfurt this year was the F 125! But Merc isn’t actually calling it a concept, rather a “research vehicle” that will help the company work toward a gasoline-free future. In this case it’s a hydrogen-filled future, with this car running on compressed gas and so giving off only water vapor and oxygen as emissions. But, it’s also a plug-in, meaning you can charge this thing up on your garage in addition to topping off the tank at your local H2 filling station — at some point in the future when you actually have an H2 filling station. Read on for more details.

Continue reading Mercedes-Benz F 125! looks like the future, runs on hydrogen

Mercedes-Benz F 125! looks like the future, runs on hydrogen originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 06:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mercedes-Benz’s hydrogen-powered F125! concept slips out ahead of Frankfurt originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At January’s Detroit Auto Show, Mercedes-Benz eagerly showed off its hydrogen-powered F-Cell car, vowing to prove the viability of fuel-cell vehicles by driving three of them around the world. And now, 18,641 total miles later, it’s completed that circumnavigation, arriving safely home at the company’s Stuttgart headquarters. Does this prove fuel-cells are ready for prime time? Well, the trip took 70 driving days to cover four continents, and the vehicles’ range topped out at just over 400 miles — in Kazahkstan. But M-B admits there are only 200 refilling stations worldwide; in most cases the F-Cells had to rely on a tag-along mobile refueling unit. The company hopes its demonstration will spur development in a refilling-station infrastructure: having a fuel-cell car you can’t easily refuel must feel like owning a flying DeLorean in 1885. To get the full breakdown, see the Mercedes-Benz PR after the break.

Continue reading Mercedes-Benz completes hydrogen-powered F-Cell World Drive, but had to bring its own fuel

Mercedes-Benz completes hydrogen-powered F-Cell World Drive, but had to bring its own fuel originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Jun 2011 17:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mercedes-Benz’s new A-Class E-Cell may be a limited production vehicle, but it is a production vehicle, which likely means that some folks will be interested in how it actually drives. Thankfully, the folks from PluginCars have now managed to take one for a quick spin, and have delivered a few first impressions. The short of it is that while it’s a “nice ride,” it’s apparently not a very powerful one — in fact, the site says that the car felt “significantly slower” than the Nissan Leaf, which also of course has the advantage of being cheaper and more widely available. The Mercedes does apparently handle much better, though, and while the floor is a bit higher than a normal car, the interior otherwise seems to be top notch. Unfortunately, the test drive wasn’t exactly long enough to truly test the car’s Tesla-provided batteries, but the site was at least pleased to see the current state of charge conveniently placed right in the middle of the dashboard.

Mercedes’ A-Class E-Cell gets taken for a test drive originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Smart shows off Forspeed electric roadster concept originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Circling the globe on hydrogen power sounds like a bit of a challenge, what with the lack H2 pumps and all, but Mercedes-Benz set off to show that it could do just that — with the help of a mobile filling station, nat

Hertz may have been the first to get the suckers on the road, but Mindy Kimball of Silver Spring, MD is the first American customer to have a Smart Fortwo Electric Drive of her very own. She’s a US Army Major and now has a funky little green (but not olive drab) and white coupe at home — probably buried under a foot or two of white stuff at this point. She’s member numero uno of Smart USA’s so-called “Team 250,” which will make up the first 250 owners of the cars, each of which offer a maximum of 72 miles of range and a top speed of 70mph. All while looking super cute.

[Thanks, Jason]

Smart USA won’t be stopped by snow, delivers first Fortwo Electric Drive to a customer originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daimler AG is of course best known as the producer of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, cars that usually sit toward the higher end of their respective classes. BYD, on the other hand, makes batteries, cellphones, and inexpensive cars that often look an awful, awful lot like other, rather more expensive ones. Strange bedfellows, these, but according to a “knowledgeable individual” quoted by The Wall Street Journal the two are getting closer to finalizing plans for an electric vehicle, freezing the design ahead of production to begin toward the end of 2012. The car is said to be called the GOLF, standing for Green, Oxygen, Light, and Friendship — though that L could also double for Lawsuit given VW already sells its Golf in China. This partnership is similar to what BMW is doing, working with Brilliance China Automotive to get a foothold into the potentially Chinese EV market, which is already starting to heat up and should only continue to do so over the coming years.

Daimler and BYD’s GOLF electric car getting closer to completion? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fuel cell-powered cars provide the efficiency and driveability of an electric vehicle while also offering the unlimited range of a traditional gasoline powered car — assuming you can find a place to top off those hydrogen tanks. Right now that’s a bit of a problem, but Mercedes Benz is out to show that it’s not nearly as big of a hindrance as everyone makes it out to be. It’ll be driving the B-Class F-Cell model around the world, starting in Stuttgart and motoring down to Lisbon, flying over to the US and driving across that, then across Australia before hopping a boat to Shanghai and driving all the way across Asia, ultimately arriving back to Stuttgart facing in the same direction they left. The B-Class F-Cell can cover 400km on a tank and can be refilled in about three minutes. At this point we have no reason to believe that either Ewan McGregor nor Charlie Boorman will be along for the ride, but given how well things went in Log Way Round perhaps that’s for the best.

Mercedes kicks off F-Cell World Drive, circumnavigating the globe on hydrogen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 22:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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