By CRM staff
Toronto, Ontario – October 10, 2018 – Mercedes-Benz is rolling out a new test project in Germany to help refine technology in their first ever GLC F-Cell model. This new design combines a fuel cell with a battery that can be recharged through a wall socket anywhere there is access to power.
Although the vehicle is only being offered in Germany for now as a test project, parent company Daimler states that they aim to soon release the vehicle to consumers in Japan, and then continue to expand once confident in performance.
“Regarding costs and standardization, we have not reached the goal yet, but we are heading in the right direction,” Juergen Schenk, the head of Mercedes-Benz electric-drive system integration, told reporters in Stuttgart this week. “Fuel cells will see a breakthrough — whether that is going to be in cars, vans or buses remains to be seen.”
Fuel cells convert chemical energy into electricity through a reaction of hydrogen with oxygen or another oxidizing agent. Mercedes’s model, with a driving range of 478 kilometres (297 miles) for fuel cell and battery, takes about three minutes to replenish the tank.
While fuel cell and fully electric cars do not emit any emission gases, the manufacturing on these are a different story. Demands for production of cars with fuel cells or high-voltage batteries trigger significantly higher emissions of carbon dioxide, a contributor to climate-warming. However the use of these types of vehicles can reduce up to 55 percent of emissions compared to combustion engines.
