Mercedes-Benz F-CELL World Drive: Around the world in 125 days

Mercedes-Benz takes off on the first circumnavigation of the world with fuel cell-powered electric vehicles. At the end of January Mercedes-Benz gave the starter's signal for what until now is an unparalleled long-distance journey – the F-CELL World Drive.

This is what the automotive manufacturer from Stuttgart announced at the North American Auto Show in Detroit. Mercedes-Benz will circumnavigate the world with the first series-produced fuel cell vehicle, the B-Class F-CELL. The aim of the F-CELL World Drive is to demonstrate the efficiency and suitability for everyday use of fuel cell technology, and at the same time campaign for the development of a global hydrogen filling station network.

Circling the globe on hydrogen power sounds like a bit of a challenge, what with the lack H2 pumps and all, but Mercedes-Benz set off to show that it could do just that -- with the help of a mobile filling station, natürlich. It's the F-Cell World Drive, and unfortunately, things got off to something of a bad start with two cars running out of fuel on the very first leg of the journey, one with Autoblog's Michael Harley at the wheel, no less. This first leg apparently began with a trip down an unrestricted bit of the Autobahn and, well, it seems the drivers of the cars decided to see what the little green B-Class F-Cells could do. The answer is 110mph, and of course moving along at this rate of speed did little for their range. The two cars came up 20km short of their first planned refueling stop, heavy right feet resulting in consumption of 1.5Kg of hydrogen per 100km distance -- roughly equivalent of 45mpg and way less than the 71mpg equivalent the cars usually manage.

Source: Mercedes-Benz and Engadget