Bloomberg has a story titled Mercedes 18,600-Mile Trip Parts With Daimler's Century of Strategy Shifts that describes the plans for three B-Class F-CELL cars to circumnavigate the globe. It involves 4 continents, 14 countries, and more than 20 stopovers with their fuel cell vehicles.
Each car includes:
- A fuel cell stack operating at 80 C
- A lithium-ion battery
- 700 bar (10,000 psi) compressed hydrogen storage
- A single front-drive motor
Cold-start capability is promised down to minus 25 degrees Celsius.
All is well until Bloomberg discusses that "Daimler, which packed fuel cells into the back of a delivery van to create the world’s first vehicle using that technology in 1994." I couldn't believe this, so I found the Mercedes press release Zero-emission vehicle sets off on automotive marathon: Starting shot fired for F-CELL World Drive. Somehow, a Mercedes flack says "Mercedes-Benz recognized this potential at an early stage, launching the first vehicle with fuel cell drive, the NECAR 1, as early as 1994." Mercedes, do some fact checking!
It is very easy to find multiple references to the 1966 GM Electrovan, the REAL first fuel cell vehicle. The Electrovan had 32 1 kilowatt alkaline fuel cell "modules," and had a peak power output of 160 kW. Luckily, it never got recycled, and is at the General Motors Heritage Center near Detroit.
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