FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW: Mercedes-Benz Unveils GLC Fuel Cell

Just when it seemed like everybody was betting the farm on battery-electric cars, along comes Mercedes-Benz with a fuel-cell SUV.

The GLC F-Cell, revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show, follows the B-Class F-Cell (from 2010) and shows Daimler is already planning for the day when straight Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) aren’t enough and, as widely believed, fuel-cell cars become vital.

To launch under the umbrella of Daimler’s EQ electric-car brand, the GLC F-Cell should be ahead of the curve. It offers a zero-emission range of 437kms and stores 4.4kg of hydrogen in two tanks.

The electric motor delivers 147kW (200hp) and 350Nm of torque (the electric-car instant type of torque) so performance should be on-par with a regular GLC.

Fuel-cell technology means the GLC F-Cell’s batteries don’t need to be as large, expensive or heavy as those in a pure BEV, so it uses only a 13.8kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

While that delivers 47km of pure BEV driving on the NEDC test, the rest of the GLC F-Cell’s range comes directly from its hydrogen fuel cell acting as an on-board power station. It generates electricity on its own, to directly drive the electric motor or to recharge the lithium-ion battery packs, emitting nothing but water vapour.

In a world first, the Mercedes-Benz GLC F-Cell is also technically a plug-in hybrid fuel cell/BEV, because the lithium-ion battery can be recharged from either a wall socket or a charging station to deliver another +47kms of battery range.

Official fuel consumption is rated at 0.97kg of H2 per 100km, roughly 40 per cent better than the previous B-Class F-Cell. And, the GLC’s fuel-cell system is about 30 percent smaller than the one used in the B-Class.

In fact, it’s so much smaller that instead of requiring a complete re-engineering job on the underbody to house the tanks, the entire GLC system is housed inside the standard engine bay and even the regular engine-mount brackets are retained.

Even with an asynchronous electric motor directly driving the front wheels, the GLC F-Cell can fit one of its hydrogen tanks in the engine bay, while the second sits beneath the rear seat.

Another major advance is a significant reduction in production costs as the amount of platinum used in the fuel cell has been slashed by 90 per cent.

"Our many years of experience with fuel-cell technology pay dividends in the new GLC F-CELL: its long electric range, short refuelling times and everyday practicality of an SUV will make it the perfect vehicle,” explained Mr Ola Källenius, Daimler’s board member for research and development. “This is made possible by the compact construction of our fuel-cell system. Another genuine world first is the combination with a large additional lithium-ion battery, which can be conveniently charged using plug-in technology."

The fuel cell GLC falls within the EQ brand’s remit, largely because its development tapped into the pooled resources of the electrification group inside Kallenius’s own development branch. Daimler now has more than 18 million kilometres worth of fuel-cell data.

With another 10 pure BEV models planned to launch before 2022, Daimler hopes its definition of the GLC F-Cell as a plug-in hybrid will convince people it’s a family-friendly practical car.

While finding nearly 5kg of hydrogen isn’t currently straightforward for city dwellers, the GLC F-Cell will recharge its lithium-ion battery in about 1.5 hours from a 7.2kW on-board charger.

The hydrogen tanks have the standard 700-bar pressure and are encased in carbon-fibre. Built into the GLC’s floor, they can be fully refueled in only three minutes – about the same time as a conventional petrol or diesel vehicle.

While the fuel-cell unit and its hydrogen storage setup were developed by NuCellSys, Daimler’s subsidiary company in Baden-Württemberg, and its other Accumotive battery subsidiary developed and assembled the lithium-ion battery, the fuel cell stacks were developed in Vancouver, Canada, as part of the German giant’s joint venture with Ford.

The GLC F-Cell offers a range of driving modes, with its ‘Hybrid’ mode combining both the lithium-ion battery’s stored energy and the fuel-cell’s real-time delivery to provide propulsion.

A dedicated ‘F-Cell’ mode keeps the battery’s charge high and runs the car on its fuel cell almost entirely, while the ‘Battery’ mode does the opposite and operates as a pure BEV.

There’s also a ‘Sport’ mode for faster driving and a ‘Charge’ mode which uses all of the regenerative braking capacity and the fuel cell to recharge the lithium-ion battery.

The SUV’s cabin is largely untouched from the regular GLC, though it has a step-up in the luggage area and the rear seat is slightly higher so it can swallow the second hydrogen tank.

‘Benz sits the GLC F-Cell on a standard suspension package of a coil-spring front and a single-chamber air set-up at the rear. All-round are 20-inch wheels and tyres.

Inside, the GLC F-Cell will debut Mercedes’ new multifunction touchpad, which recognizes most of the world’s hand-writing styles and can be operated either with one finger or many.

Built in Bremen, alongside the conventional GLC, the F-Cell is already filling Benz’s test fleets and the company plans to put it into rental fleets to assist acclimatizing the public to the technology.

Germany is slated to have 100 H2 refuelling stations by the end of this year and 300 more by the end of 2023.