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The 2011 B-Class F-Cell by Mercedes-Benz.
These days automakers are teaming up to develop the next wave of zero-emission tech: hydrogen fuel cells, which generate power by combining hydrogen gas with oxygen. Just last Thursday, Toyota and BMW finalized their alliance to co-develop a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) powertrain—cell, hydrogen, tank, motor, and battery—aiming for completion by 2020. Today, Daimler AG, Ford, and Renault-Nissan penned an agreement to do the same thing, but with a more ambitious 2017 completion date.
From a practical standpoint, the two alliances are merely methods to cut R&D cost and speed production by splitting the bill and the burden between two or three companies, each of which would produce their own distinctive car on top of the new fuel cell powertrain. But ideologically, they signal the start of a collective shift within the industry to a new alternative source of power: moving away from the lithium-ion battery and toward the hydrogen fuel cell. "We are convinced that fuel cell vehicles will play a central role for zero-emission mobility in the future," said Thomas Weber, member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, Group Research & Mercedes-Benz Cars Development, in a release.
The industry has flirted with FCEVs in the past. Most famous is Honda's FCX Clarity unveiled in 2008. More recently we saw Mercedes-Benz's 2011 B-Class F-Cell. There's a good reason the auto industry is so interested: According to one Department of Energy study, hydrogen fuel cells have much higher energy densities than lithium-ion batteries, giving them increased range and lower overall weight, not to mention that they emit nothing but water from the tailpipe.
While developing a cost-efficient, production-ready system will be no easy task for automakers, an even greater challenge will be establishing the infrastructure to support fuel cell-powered cars. According to Department of Energy data, only 10 publicly owned hydrogen fueling stations currently exist in the U.S.—eight of which reside in Southern California.