www.detnews.com
October 06. 2010
Daimler AG has begun taking orders for its new Mercedes-Benz hydrogen fuel-cell car that will be leased to customers in California as the automaker joins a wave of alternative-fuel vehicles reaching the US The monthly lease price may be $600 to $800 including fuel, Sascha Simon, director of advanced product planning for the automakers sales U.S, unit, said today in an interview. The leases are being limited to drivers in Los Angeles and the San Francisco area because of the restricted availability of hydrogen fuel.
Mercedes-Benz this week is introducing a marketing campaign that it says will better explain alternative-fuel options to consumers. The campaign will include a website that goes live Thursday and includes stories of how people use alternative-fuel vehicles. "We are in the process of reinventing the automobile", Simon said. "Customers right now still don't know exactly where this is all going. Our job will be to actually work with them and make it easy for them to understand".
Mercedes-Benz joins Nissan Motor Co., General Motors Co, and others introducing alternative-fuel vehicles this year and in early 2011. President Barack Obama last year announced stricter rules for greenhouse-gas emissions and the first boost in fuel-economy standards in decades. Nissan said last month that U.S, customers had put in 20,000 reservations for the battery-powered Leaf hatchback. The company has said the Leaf will travel as far as 100 miles when its lithium-ion pack is fully charged.
GM, which is coming out with the electric-drive Chevrolet Volt in November, also is developing hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. The automaker in May announced a program in Hawaii with a local gas company to create hydrogen fueling stations for test vehicles.
Mercedes-Benz has said its hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle will have a driving range of 240 miles, and there will be six hydrogen fueling stations open to the public in the Los Angeles area this year, Simon said. That contrasts with Germany, where about 1,000 hydrogen fueling stations will be open by 2017, Simon said. Mercedes-Benz has invested about 2 billion euros ($2.79 billion) in hydrogen-electric technology in the past 15 years, he said.
Lessors will receive the vehicles beginning in mid-December, with 5 to 15 in the initial delivery and more expected next year, he said. The company has said it planned to lease 200 of the B-Class F-Cell, a four-door hatchback, in the U.S, and Europe in 2010. We have seen so far good interest -- we would like to see more interest, Simon said. He declined to say how many vehicles have been ordered since the company's website began taking reservations within the past month. "I do not believe we will have a problem finding customers", he said.
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