Daimler Makes Excellent Progress On Hydrogen Powered Buses

STUTTGART, GERMANY - Mercedes-Benz, whose parent company is Daimler AG, will launch their newly designed Mercedes-Benz Citaro Fuel Cell Hydrogen Bus at the World Congress of the International Association of Public Transport on June 7, 2009 in Vienna, Austria. Called the Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid, it includes a state-of-the art hydrogen fuel cell engine mounted in the roof, a lithium-ion battery pack for back-up storage power, and runs on compressed zero-emissions hydrogen. The new Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid also has regenerative braking to charge its battery pack during deceleration.

For Daimler, the new Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid Bus represents a huge potential business for them in high technology low emissions worldwide transport sales. The market expectations are that hydrogen bus transportation infrastructures will quickly start to emerge once the ramp-up in manufacturing capability of hydrogen buses and the installation of hydrogen transport supply infrastructures are achieved. The high efficiency of the hydrogen fuel cell, its 100% zero emissions capability, the range capability, and the fact that one bus can transport 70 people in comfort, makes new hydrogen buses attractive to many communities.

Mercedes-Benz engineers have incorporated the hybrid drive system from their current Citaro G BlueTec Diesel bus into the new FuelCELL Hybrid model. Mercedes-Benz say that this has resulted in up to a 10-25 % hydrogen fuel savings depending upon traffic route over their first generation hydrogen fuel cell bus. Daimler says they will start full-scale field trials of the new Citaro Fuel Cell (FuelCELL) bus this August in major European cities.