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Which alternatively-fueled car is going to be the winner? An all-electric model, like the Tesla Roadster? An EV with a gas-driven power generator, like the Volt or the F3DM? Or perhaps a fuel cell vehicle, like the FCX Clarity? Mercedes, it seems, is hedging its bets and going with: all three.
All three, however, will look the same on the outside. BlueZERO (no, it’s not an energy drink, even though it sounds like one) is the name of the new concept’s general framework; the three different models will be the BlueZERO E-CELL (all-electric), E-CELL PLUS (EV with an onboard generator), and F-CELL (fuel cell). The E-CELL and F-CELL will appear at the upcoming Detroit Auto Show, while the E-CELL PLUS is still in the development stage.
Besides sporting a sleek, aerodynamic design, the BlueZEROs promise to deliver when it comes to driving range. The E-CELL will get up to 120 miles on a 3-4 hour charge; the E-CELL PLUS will go 60 miles on electric and 370 miles with fuel. The F-CELL should get 248 miles on a tank of hydrogen.
If you think about it, this is kind of like a grand green car experiment. All the variables are held constant (the cars all have essentially the same parts), except for the power source. As long as Mercedes puts equal effort into each BlueZERO (and we have no reason to suspect it would not), customer satisfaction can be rated as a function of technology type. I’m curious to see how it plays out.
Via Autobloggreen
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written by Chris, December 18, 2008
http://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/0,1518,596482,00.html
Mercedes seems to be pretty serious about that project. They started a Joint Venture with Li-tec, a company that supposed to have functioning Lithium-ion batteries on hand.
Mercedes has also a pretty big R&D crew. I think I've read somewhere, that their R&D department is the biggest in Europe, so if they put there resources in those types of cars, that should result in a nice, ecogeeky car.
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written by Chris, December 18, 2008
@hyperspaced: I don't actually think, that it is that big of a deal for Mercedes to do the three models at once. They already have most of the technology, that differs in the 3 models at hand. As the Generator an already efficient Smart car engine will be used. Mercedes had already in the late 90's an working Fuel-Cell car developed, just never released it, because there was no Hydrogen infrastructure available and Gas prices weren't high enough. Everything in those cars will be the same like the engine. Just the Energysource will be different. And those are all technologies which they claim they already had years ago (exept the batteries). i just wonder why they were so late actually putting it all together.
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written by Sinan, December 18, 2008
which is pretty good. Now let's see how $much$ they want for it.....if it ever gets released ;)
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written by Clinch, December 18, 2008
The infrastructure for a hydrogen can isn't in place yet, and the technology for a purely electric car isn't advanced enough yet (it's advanced enough to be usable, but not competitively so).
The second fact, is public opinion, by now, everyone one knows what hybrids are, whereas hydrogen vehicles are relatively unknown (and people are cautious of the unknown), and from poor performances from mobile phone, and laptop batteries, people are also going to be cautious about a car that runs on batteries.
But probably the most important factor, is price (mainly initial price, but also lifetime/running costs, especially if the prices of the fuels [i.e. diesel, hydrogen, electricity] keep changing).
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written by Nick, December 18, 2008
Is it ever going to be updated? Thanks
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But, upon the looming shadow of the economic depression, plans about "we-research-everything" seem totally empty. Pick carefully a technology and stick with it.