Seventy Mercedes-Benz Advanced Technology Vehicles will be Deployed on California Roadways – Twenty to Participate in DOE Technology Validation Project
November 29, 2010
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will include twenty fuel cell vehicles from Mercedes-Benz as part of the Technology Validation project in the Fuel Cell Technologies Program. Mercedes-Benz has announced their intention to deploy 70 fuel cell vehicles by 2012, showing a growing industry commitment to advanced technology vehicles and international collaboration to bring these technologies to their fullest fruition. This project will bring vehicles with the latest technology advancements to U.S. roadways and allow DOE to validate the technologies for ultimate market acceptance.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s 50/50 cost-shared project validates fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen fueling stations under real-world operating conditions and demonstrates advances in research. A total of 152 vehicles and 24 fueling stations have reported data to the DOE’s project, including vehicles from General Motors, Ford, and Hyundai Kia, in addition to Mercedes-Benz. These vehicles have traveled over 2.8 million miles and have shown a durability of 2,500 hours, equivalent to about 75,000 miles.
Mercedes-Benz North America has been involved since 2005 and will continue to provide critical data to the DOE from 20 of the fuel cell vehicles being announced today. The second generation, B-class Mercedes-Benz vehicles are designed to have a 270-mile driving range on one tank of hydrogen and take less than 5 minutes to fill. It is also currently certified by the EPA and CARB as a zero-emission vehicle for the 2011 model year.
Vehicles will be delivered to select customers in California before the end of this year. The full 70 vehicle fleet will be deployed by 2012. Based on successful performance of these vehicles, Mercedes-Benz anticipates commercialization of fuel cell vehicles in the 2015 timeframe.
