Mercedes presented their latest fuel cell car, BlueZero, at NAIAS in Detroit. The vehicle is built on modular architecture with a range of powertrains including fuel cells.Mercedes also unveiled BlueZERO E-Cell car which is a pure electric car and BlueZERO E-Cell Plus which has a hybrid electric-petrol engine. BlueZERO F-Cell is powered by a fuel cell that gives an autonomy of 240miles.
Even if BlueZero is only 166 inch long, the car has five seats and has a luggage capacity of 17.65 ft. The car is built using the sandwich-floor technique developed for the compact A-Class. This method increases the interior maximum space by putting the major drive components low in the vehicle.
Thomas Weber, Mercedes R&D Manager, has said that the company will build a small number of fuel cell cars this year, and by 2010 the battery-electric vehicle. Daimler has teamed up with Evonik Industries last month, in an effort to build lithium-ion battery in the company’s own factory. Evonik Industries is a company specialized in chemicals, energy and real estate.
[via fuelcelltoday.com]
