Fuel cell B-Class arrives in Australia

The hard sell is on for the hydrogen fuel cell. A small fleet of Mercedes-Benz's B Class F-Cell cars arrived in Sydney this week, accompanied by a large entourage of managerial GL SUVs and vans equipped for refuelling and repairs. With them is a semi-trailer laden with full-length red hydrogen cylinders, making up for Australia's – and most of the world's – 100 per cent shortfall in service stations with hydrogen pumps.

They're circumnavigating the globe in a four-month tour taking in 14 countries on four continents.

The World Drive is part of the company's plan to convince consumers, corporates and governments that fuel cell power is market-ready. If Daimler has its way, the technology will turn up in its mainstream fleet in 2015.

Arriving in Sydney this week, the lime green travelling circus took day 59 off to give local media a look through the cars and a chance to take them for a whizz through the streets around Darling Harbour.

But this isn't about the present as much as the distant future – 2050, to be precise. By that time, if things are going according to plan, Europe will have cut carbon emissions from present levels by 80 per cent, with auto companies averaging 95g/km CO2 fleetwide. That's a big enough ask for Daimler to get going on it four decades in advance.

There are three factors dictating the pace at which Benz is bringing the car to market, says Dr Andreas Truckenbrodt, now CEO with Automotive Fuel Cell Corporation, a joint venture between Daimler and Ford headquartered near Vancouver.

Before taking this job, he was Daimler's hybrid development boss. "First is regulation changes," he told Carsales Network. "We accept the demands they impose, and we know we won't be able to meet future levels just on IC engines and hybrids, even with the 3-5 per cent improvements we're achieving today. We need a zero-emission component to our line-up to pull the average down."

Secondly, there's market pressure, which helps offset the regulatory requirements. "People will want electric drive, but they won't want the range restrictions and the charge times of pure battery cars. The fuel cell system complements what so many of our competitors are coming up with."

Then there's the 2050 issue. Why so far ahead?

It hinges on the average vehicle life expectancy. In the all-important US market, that's about 17 years. That means if Daimler is to ensure its fleet emissions are 80 per cent down on now in 2050, those cars need to be closer to the end of their lifespan than the beginning. "Or at least they need to be entrenched in mainstream sales well before then," says Truckenbrodt. 

"That effectively brings us forward to about 2033. We have to be able to sell them in their thousands by then, so we don't want to arrive there with only a first generation car," adds Truckenbrodt. "It's safest to start at least a generation before that, which brings us back to around 2015 or 2020."

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