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10/04/2011
REVIEW by EWAN KENNEDY
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Mercedes-Benz believes electric cars are the way of the future. Well aware that short range and long refuelling times are the biggest drawbacks of electric power, Benz is showing an alternative way of powering electric vehicles - producing cars that make their own electricity as they travel along.
Mercedes-Benz can claim to have invented the first car 125 years ago, and to celebrate that event is undertaking a 125-day round-the-world tour to showcase hydrogen cars.
The Mercedes world tour began in Germany on January 29, the company’s birthday, and we were invited to drive one of the F-Cheers, F-Cell cars when it stopped briefly in Melbourne to demonstrate its prowess. Interestingly, that was on the 63rd day of the world tour, exactly half way through the epic trip.
Unlike BMW, which put on a major event in Melbourne a couple of years back and let us drive a 7 Series that used hydrogen within the engine, the Mercedes F-Cell uses a fuel cell to produce electricity from the hydrogen. The electricity then drives the front wheels of the converted Mercedes B-Class by way of a conventional electric motor.
Carrying compressed hydrogen in pressure cylinders under the centre-rear of the F-Cell car gives it a driving range of about 300 to 400 kilometres and refuelling can be done in three to four minutes. Thus the hydrogen car could be used as a regular vehicle for travel even in remote areas of Australia.
However, hydrogen isn’t yet available in service stations and a lot of work to set up the infrastructure would be required. The technology is already available and hydrogen is already produced in Australia in reasonable quantities and there’s no need for a major revamp of the existing hydrogen producing systems to supply automotive needs for quite a few vehicles.
Mercedes-Benz likens the present lack of hydrogen fuel infrastructure to the days of 1886 when the very first Benz cars had to be refuelled after visits to chemist shops. Nowadays, service centres for fuel are everywhere.
Hydrogen is, of course, the most common element in the universe so will be available as a fuel for evermore. It produces no emissions other than water vapour. However, energy has to be used to extract hydrogen from other elements. If that energy comes from using carbon based fuels the equation rapidly changes. A sustainable hydrogen economy would require the development of clean sustainable energy.
Mercedes-Benz, and many others, including BOC in Australia, are investigating alternative ways of producing hydrogen. Fascinatingly, it may be able to be produced from algae, so the fuel could be grown in reservoirs, rivers or lakes.
Hydrogen fuel cells have an efficiency of about 62 per cent, making them roughly twice as efficient as diesel fuel. Rapid advances are being made in turbo-diesel engines, but their proponents can only dream of efficiency anywhere near 62 per cent.
The Mercedes-Benz F-Cell car weighs about 300 kilograms more than the standard petrol and diesel B-Class models. On the road it feels slightly sluggish in acceleration, though the instant reaction to the ‘throttle’ that we love so much in electric cars is still there. Our test drive was carried out in suburban Melbourne so we had no real chance to test vehicle handling. It certainly felt neutral and stable during our short road test.
The extra weight did put a bit more strain on the brakes but not to the extent that safety was compromised. In any case, future hydrogen vehicles would be full engineered around the new power source. Naturally, some of the energy being dissipated by the brakes was put back into the battery. This generation is a major advantage of electric and hybrid vehicles.
Motor noise is minimal and the overall refinement and safety features are pretty much the same as the standard Mercedes-Benz B-Class.
As well as working on this hydrogen car Mercedes-Benz is also deeply into research on conventional battery powered electric cars. Though we are not sure that the full electric version of the stunning Mercedes-Benz SLS Gullwing, tagged the Mercedes E-Cell could exactly be called conventional... |
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