Mercedes-Benz is trying to prove its F-CELL technology is now ready for near-mass production and consumption by sending out a batch of B-Class F-CELL into the wide world for durability and usability testing. In fact, the cars will circumvent the globe and go through four continents and four countries. Noticeably neither South Africa nor Africa at all are included on that list. Neither is South America for that matter. Are things so dark on our continents that Merc will not attempt a drive with an electric car through them?
Of the four continents we have Europe where the cars started off in Germany two days ago, heading for France, then Spain, and finally Portugal, before being shipped off to North America. Upon landing in Miami they will travel westwards, up San Antonio towards Phoenix, past Seattle and into Canada where they will then be transported to Australia via Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth respectively. Thereafter their journey will take them to Shanghai, then Beijing, ultimately through to Moscow and eventually back to Stuttgart where they drove off. In total the trip should cover over 30 000km and take about 125 days to complete.
The B-Class F-CELL was made available to selected customers in the US and Europe last year and is powered by an electric drive system. That basically means it has no petrol or diesel engine, just a fuel cell (lithium-ion battery pack) located beneath the car’s floor. It makes 100kW and 290Nm of torque, which is similar to what a 1.8-litre naturally aspirated petrol or 1.4-litre turbo engine produces nowadays. Merc says it has a range of 400km before needing fillups.
It seems there are only around 200 filling stations in the world which can accommodate fuel cell cars, hence the exclusion of certain areas such as Mzansi, Egypt and Zimbabwe.
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