Zoomi Life

At the opening of the press events for the Frankfurt Motor Show, Dieter Zetsche, the chairman of Mercedes-Benz showed off the new F-Cell production concept and said that hydrogen cars would be coming in the “hundreds of thousands” over the next few years from a variety of manufacturers.

The F-Cell, which will go into limited production in the next few months (more info here), is slated for European use along Germany, Denmark, and Norway’s “hydrogen highways.”

Despite this announcement, however, electrics are the showcases of this year’s Frankfurt show, by all accounts.  At least 30 models of electric cars are being shown there, despite many of them having a few years to go before entering the market.

While hydrogen isn’t as “sexy” as battery electric right now, it’s got more automakers fielding it in trials than EVs do.  Hydrogen has distinct market advantages that many auto makers see as the breaking point for real popular acceptance of electrics: namely the charging times. Consumers are used to driving their vehicles until nearly empty, pulling into a station and filling back up in minutes.  Hydrogen offers that, electrics generally don’t.

Whatever the truth, it was an interesting statement coming from a company as well-rooted as Daimler, which until recently has had a reputation as being a mountain of corporate stodginess.  Perhaps there’s a quiet revolution going on deep in the auto industry that we don’t see much of from the outside.

Source: GTM