Daimler: Hydrogen-powered cars a reality by 2015

September 10, 2009 | Camille Ricketts | Comments | |

daimlerchrysler_fcellDaimler’s chief executive Dieter Zetsche said today that hydrogen-powered cars will be ready for the mass market by 2015. The key will be making them cost-competitive with other automotive technology on the road, followed closely by building the necessary infrastructure, he said.

Even if the concept is already proven on a small scale, average drivers will still need to be able to fill their tanks like they do now in order for hydrogen fuel cells to catch on. For this reason, Zetsche made his announcement to traditional energy and gas companies that might be interested in branching into this area. Taking an opposing tack, U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu has talked about cutting the research and development budget for hydrogen because the lack of realistic fueling stations will be prohibitive.

In the last eight years, the U.S. has spent about $1.5 billion on developing hydrogen fuel cells. Chu would like to shift these funds to other transportation alternatives, especially plug-in electric vehicles. But this might not delay hydrogen too much. Automotive giants like General Motors, Toyota, Ford and Honda have all said they will continue working on the technology without government support.

Daimler’s goal is to commercialize the hydrogen fuel cell version of its compact Mercedez Benz B class by 2015. It plans to unveil the model at an auto show in Frankfurt next week, and says it will be able to produce 200 of them this year. Two years ago, it was focused on the Mercedes Benz F-Cell (see image above), which it hoped to have widely available by 2010. Of course, this has yet to happen.

To make this possible, Daimler is seeking partnerships with other major car makers — particularly Toyota, which hasn’t been hit as hard by the economic slump. It is also looking for help to produce the next iteration of its Smart car.

VentureBeat is hosting GreenBeat, the seminal executive conference on the Smart Grid, on Nov. 18-19, featuring keynotes from Nobel Prize winner Al Gore and Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr. Get your early-bird tickets for $495 before Sept. 30 at GreenBeat2009.com.

Next Story: As cap-and-trade rankles Congress, Europe moves toward carbon tax
Previous Story: 5 O’Clock Roundup: Chip makers boost tech stocks, Boots get the brig, Microsoft funds open-source evangelism

Bookmark and Share

Tags:

Photo of Camille Ricketts

About the Author, Camille Ricketts

Camille is the lead writer for GreenBeat. She came to VentureBeat from Google where she worked on its traditional platforms team, particularly in TV. Before that, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York and London. Follow her on Twitter at @camillericketts, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

With GreenBeat 2009, VentureBeat's all-star conference on all things Smart Grid, coming up in November, Camille will be expanding coverage of this exciting space. Stay up to date by following @greenbeat2009 on Twitter or by becoming a fan of the event on Facebook here.

  • Amazing technology
  • If you still have to use regular fuel to make the cars run, what is the point in using hydrogen-powered cars? After all, the whole point is to prevent the consumption of all our fossil fules till they become non-existent.
  • Mike in NJ
    These cars run solely on Hydrogen. The biggest hurdle, other than price for low volume cars is the Hydrogen fueling infrastructure. As Mercedes (Daimler) and others bring in cars, the demand for stations will grow, aloowing for more and more cars to hit the road. Since the cars a zero emission, and hydorgen is both a non fossil fuel and domestically produced, a win -win -win scenario will emerge: reduced emissions, reduced depeltion of natural resources and reduced dependency on foreign oil (from an overall perspective).
  • spec9
    Why don't they ever give a price for a hydrogen car?

    Things that make you go "Hmmmm."
  • zikjam
    Steven Chu is right on. It will take trillions of $ to get the infrastructure for hydrogen and where do you get hydrogen from? Fossil fuels, unless you want to build 100s of nuclear plants to create it which is even more trillions in infrastrcture. Then you have to deal with the smallest molecule on the planet leaking out everywhere causing explosions. This is why refineries burn off hydrogen instead of using it, it is just too difficult and costly to handle. Dr. Zetsche is out to lunch. Natural gas vehicle would be far easier to deploy, but in the end, electric is the technology since the cost of infrastructure is the lowest of any other competing technology.