It turns out there may be something to hydrogen fuel cells after all, even if the co-founder and CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla thinks it’s all “so bull$*it.”
Daimler has been hard at work for nearly two decades to try and figure out how to make the idea not only viable technologically, but also financially feasible as a mass market product.
Now, in short interview with Daimler’s head of corporate research, Herbert Kohler, for a German sister site of AutoNews, it was announced that the group was actually already set to release its own fuel cell vehicle, but that it was pushing back the launch until 2017.
Daimler entered a partnership with Ford and Nissan (with Renault included) to jointly develop these types of vehicles, while also trying to get the number of common parts they use up – this is the cause of the delay and its end goal is a further reduction of costs through sharing and cooperating.
Kohler explained that when they do launch this fuel cell vehicle, in 2017, it will cost no more than a comparable battery-powered EV – that would be brilliant, but we’ll obviously have to wait and see if it materializes to the letter; Toyota’s is quite expensive…
By Andrei Nedelea
Note: 2011 Mercedes-Benz B-Class E-CELL Plus Concept pictured
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