Car manufacturers and their young challengers are feverishly looking for new forms of drive. Not least because of the discussions surrounding diesel propulsion and the threat of driving bans, traffic in our cities needs to be rethought. The aim is to research alternative drives and pack their concepts into a holistic strategy. In future, vehicles must be suitable for long distances as well as for urban use.

In public perception, electric drive has taken the upper hand among the alternative solutions this year. Throughout Europe, large scale investments are currently being made in charging infrastructure. At the same time, one form of drive has fallen a little behind, on which great hopes were placed just ten years ago – hydrogen.

It is a highly environmentally friendly drive. The waste product hydrogen itself is available in almost unlimited quantities. Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of natural raw materials, even from waste and its conversion produces almost no harmful substances. It is comparatively easy to store and transport and, unlike battery cells, it is purchased locally. In short, hydrogen is one of the most important future energy sources for many experts in Germany.

But despite all the euphoria, there are also downsides: hydrogen production is only really worthwhile if it can be produced with the help of regenerative energy sources. The transport itself is unfortunately really expensive. An infrastructure of hydrogen filling stations is hardly available today.

A lack of economy is certainly one of the main reasons why we currently count 40 (in words forty!) public hydrogen filling stations in Germany. There is an initiative to build another 60 filling stations by the end of 2019, which would amount to 100. By 2023, a network of up to 400 hydrogen filling stations is to be built in Germany. Similar infrastructure projects are being pursued in other European countries, the USA and Japan.

How does it work?

Hydrogen is usually stored in two specially developed tanks under the vehicle interior. The hydrogen is fed into the fuel cell to power the vehicle and reacts with oxygen, which in turn enters the compressor through the large air inlets. This generates electricity, which in turn drives an electric motor. In addition, the braking energy is stored in a high-voltage battery and used as support e.g. during overtaking manoeuvres. Hydrogen is therefore a drive for an electric motor. The big advantage is that the only emission of the vehicles operated in this way is actually pure steam.

What are manufacturers currently doing

Currently there is not a single hydrogen powered vehicle on the market from German OEMs. As one of the pioneers in fuel cell technology, Daimler was the only company to lead the way with an announcement at last autumn’s IAA for passenger cars. However, the medium-sized SUV Mercedes-Benz GLC F-CELL with an innovative combination of fuel cell and battery electric drive as a plug-in hybrid is still in pre-production.

As is so often the case, the momentum in Germany is once again emanating from commercial users. The market is slowly starting to move, and this is mainly due to commercial demand.

Toyota was the first company to announce the start of series production of its first fuel cell bus in the spring. Under the name “Sora” (Sora stands for Sky, Ocean, River and Air), more than 100 buses are to be brought onto the roads, particularly in Tokyo, before the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020. When these vehicles are available in Germany is not yet known. However, such a bus would also be attractive for long-haul routes in Germany.

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In July Mercedes-Benz Vans then presented a Sprinter with electric drive and fuel cell in Hamburg. In future, the eDrive VANs are to complement the Stuttgart company’s model strategy with fuel cell versions. The first example is a motorhome based on the Concept Sprinter F-CELL. It demonstrates the characteristic advantages of a fuel cell from a long range to locally emission-free mobility. These features are ideally suited not only for motorhomes but also for commercial applications, for example on longer courier trips or for minibuses in interurban traffic.

Thanks to comprehensive advice to its customers, Mercedes-Benz expects the greatest possible customer benefit here in future. In addition to vehicle technology, the system weight, loading or refuelling time, range and economy are taken into account for evaluation by fleet customers. Classic combustion engine, battery electric drive or future-oriented fuel cell? The customer’s application determines the drive version. And in the future this could also be a vehicle with a fuel cell electric motor drive.

First large use case for the fuel cell sprinter
With motorhomes, longer distances are the order of the day. From today’s point of view, therefore, the pure electric drive is currently (still) out of service. The F-cell motorhome with a range of 500 km can compete with conventional drives. Mercedes-Benz wants to seize the opportunity in the field of motor homes with fuel cells and plans to occupy this market segment in the long term. Even with poor availability of hydrogen filling stations, bottlenecks could be avoided thanks to the plannability of routes on journeys.

The fuel cell is a sensible extension of the drive portfolio

“In future, we will offer every commercial series with an electric drive” and “supplement our eDrive@VANs strategy with the fuel cell drive, which offers great opportunities in the medium term, especially in long-distance operation,” says Volker Mornhinweg, Head of Mercedes-Benz Vans. “The potential of this technology is undisputed. This applies above all to comparatively large vans with a high range requirement and short refuelling times. Our analyses show that the fuel cell can be a sensible extension of the drive portfolio in various commercial and private applications,” continues Volker Mornhinweg.

The intelligent interaction of battery and fuel cell drive results in the Concept Sprinter F-CELL with a maximum electrical output of around 147 kW and a torque of 350 Newton metres. The three tanks in the substructure can store a total of 4.5 kilograms of hydrogen and thus provide a range of around 300 kilometers. If a longer range is required for a defined application, the hydrogen tanks integrated in the underbody of the vehicle can be supplemented by a further one at the rear. In this configuration, the range rises up to 500 kilometres. Like the GLC F-CELL, the Concept Sprinter F-CELL combines innovative fuel cell and battery technology into a plug-in hybrid. Besides hydrogen, electricity can also be charged. This increases the range by up to 30 kilometres.