Replacing Oil

The much improved Mercedes Benz B-class f-cell car

If you’re lucky enough to live in LA or San Francisco you might have a chance to take advantage of the existing, although small, hydrogen fueling infrastructure. Daimler AG is now taking orders for the Mercedes-Benz hydrogen fuel-cell car. Due to a near total lack of fueling stations, California will be about the only state that Mercedes will lease their alternative fuel vehicle in the U.S. so sorry everybody else.

The F-Cell will have a range of 240 miles according to the Mercedes-Benz running on a tank of 3.7 kg of liquid hydrogen. Current hydrogen fuel prices in California put the cost of a fill up at 50 to 60 dollars making it somewhat more expensive to operate than a gasoline powered SUV. The lease price of the car should be in the $600-800 dollar a month range which will include the price of fuel, maintenance and insurance. All in all not a bad deal for the experience of driving a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that leaves no emissions at the tailpipe other than water, and a Benz at that!

Mercedes this week is introducing a marketing campaign that it says will better explain alternative-fuel options to consumers. The campaign will include a website that goes live Thursday and includes stories of how people use alternative-fuel vehicles. I’ve looked all over for it and the best I can find is this info on the F-Cell vehicles. Still very cool.

Here’s a video clip featuring the fuel cell car to make you wish you lived in California: