Mercedes Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car Due 2017

Mercedes-Benz is readying "the next level" of hydrogen fuel cell cars, aiming to get a production model on the road by 2017 in the form of what's believed to be a new SUV. Although the complexities of sustaining a hydrogen-fuel car is way more than an electric one, hopefully the pact signed by parent company Daimler, Ford and Nissan will make it more affordable.

Mercedes-Benz is an old player in the field of fuel-cell vehicles and has showcased several concepts, including the F-Cell prototype. To ignite things for 2017, the automakers have disclosed that they are looking at bringing out the "next generation" fuel-cell vehicle soon, Motoring reports.

Although the German company had thought to release production models based on existing test vehicles, Mercedes eventually dropped plans of a 2014 launch because of viability issues that arose.

Hopefully by 2017 the environment will be more conducive towards Hydrogen-fuel cars. What we mean by this is that more integrated or dedicated fuel-filling stations will have mushroomed. Battery-powered electric vehicles have it easier and which is why they hit the roads much earlier.

Like we mentioned before, the agreement between Daimler, Ford and Nissan is all about sharing the technology development costs. This will go on to make the on-road price of a Hydrogen-fuel car more approachable than expected. The B-Class F-Cell developed by Mercedes is modeled on the first-generation Mercedes B-Class and has a possible range of 250 miles. This is a good range for an urban city car so let us see what the 2017 model will offer.

VIA VentureBeat