Mercedes Blue-Zero E-Cell

stopcrazypp said:

Could this be the rumored third car Tesla is working on with a third party? (Though it seems a little bit soon to be the third car, given the second car isn't even unveiled yet.)

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doug said:

Tesla has said they plan to reach profitability by focusing on two core businesses. Those were delivering the Roadster and their drivetrain business.

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TEG said:

Hey watch your acronyms there!
...Tesla Energy Group, right?...

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The most ambitious of the three is the all-electric BlueZero E-Cell, which is powered by lithium-ion batteries and a 100kw electric motor that boasts an impressive 320Nm of torque.

Merc claims that only two hours of charge will power the BlueZero E-Cell for around 100km (62 miles). That’s might not sound like much but as the car is being aimed solely at city drivers, it should fit the bill for eco-conscious types with short commutes.

For drivers with longer distance journeys, Mercedes has developed two, longer-legged alternatives in the form of the BlueZero E-Cell Plus and the B-Class F-Cell.

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But it’s not all about showcasing the latest eco-friendly powertrains. The exterior of the BlueZone is a big hint to what the next generation of B-Class will look like when it arrives in 2010. The flat nose, swooping and sculpted sides and peculiar headlamps could all make their way onto the new B-Class when it arrives in showrooms, and you can bet that there will be at least one alternatively-fuelled B-Class on sale in 2009.

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If you think about it, this is kind of like a grand green car experiment. All the variables are held constant (the cars all have essentially the same parts), except for the power source. As long as Mercedes puts equal effort into each BlueZERO (and we have no reason to suspect it would not), customer satisfaction can be rated as a function of technology type. I’m curious to see how it plays out.

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Mercedes Takes Swiss Army Knife Approach to Electric Cars

Published December 17, 2008
The recently unveiled Mercedes-Benz BlueZero concept vehicles are built with the flexibility to insert electric, plug-in hybrid, and fuel-cell technologies into the same exact vehicle design.

It’s easy to dismiss the BlueZero sketches as just another cool green concept car that will never see the light of day, but it could be a glimpse into a future lineup of small Mercedes cars with varying degrees of electric power.

The Mercedes-Benz BlueZero concept will be on display at next month's 2009 Detroit Auto Show.

Definition: B-Class

The term B-class refers to subcompacts about the size of the Ford Fiesta or Hyundai Accent. The A-class is slightly smaller, although not as small as a Smart car.

This is not the first time that Daimler, the maker of Mercedes and Smart cars, has taken a Swiss army knife approach. The first generation Smart car was built with a "sandwich" platform that can handle conventional gas engines as well as alternative powertrains. In addition, Daimler used the A-class as the basis for 60 F-Cell fuel cell vehicles running on the streets of Berlin and Los Angeles.

Flexible designs allow a Mercedes A-class to take a fuel-cell drivetrain, and the Smart ForTwo to go electric. These vehicles are running in pilot programs in Europe and California.

Daimler previously announced that its next generation FCV will be built on the B-class chassis in 2010. Migrating to the BlueZero should only be a minor adjustment. Daimler’s future electric cars could also shift to the BlueZero—because the guts of the electric cars already fit in the smaller Smart and A-Class.

Opel Flextreme.

General Motors adds steroids (and fantasy) to the idea of building in flexibility. Its “skateboard” design potentially allows consumers to swap out various car bodies, seating configurations and power systems. That's also the core idea behind GM’s “e-flex” architecture—the underlying basis for the Chevy Volt. GM swapped out the Volt’s 1.0-liter three-cylinder gas engine with a 1.3-liter four-cylinder diesel engine, and modified the body style, to produce a plug-in hybrid concept for the European market: the Opel Flextreme.

Download video! The General Motors futuristic "skateboard" design, as described on The Discovery Channel.

Sharing platforms and technology architectures allows car companies to telescope development and production timelines, which can stretch out for years. And it helps to save money on rolling out advanced new models at a time when cost remains the biggest obstacle to introducing the latest whiz-bang auto technologies.

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Mercedes makes its own lithium ion batteries

Nearly all carmakers have announced they will be producing electric cars. But no one can announce specific dates, given the lack of the necessary lithium ion batteries. Mercedes has grown tired of waiting and is going on the offensive: Instead of waiting for external suppliers, it is building its own lithium ion batteries. Accordingly, it announced this week a cooperation with the energy provider Evonik, whose daughter Li-Tex has already developed batteries ready for production.

The so-called flat cells are superior to previous solutions in their energy density, weight, and security, and on top of that they are built to be stacked like fuel cells in order to be installed in the existing system. Though there is still no production date, given the expertise behind Evonik and the 600 patents owned by Daimler relating to battery-driven cars, the partners are confident that the first personal and utility vehincles by Mercedes will be fitted with such batteries “in the short term”.

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dpeilow said:

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/01/10/detroit-2009-mercedes-benz-unveils-the-concept-bluezero/Do we like this?

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Mercedes also announced that it will begin low-volume series production of the fuel cell B-Class later this year and follow that with low volume series production of a battery electric vehicle in 2010.

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