All around Chicago, Certified Mercedes dealers are pleased with the announcement that the new 2010 B-Class F-Cell, which is the first production fuel cell electric car on the road today, will be placed with customers this spring. The B-Class F-Cell, is unlike the plug-in electric cars of PHEV hybrids, the F-Cell model never needs gas or never needs recharging, you refuel the car with hydrogen.

The F-Cell B-Class has a range of about 240 miles and runs on compressed hydrogen with an equivalent fuel mileage of 86.6 city-highway combined miles per gallon. The hydrogen B-Class will be powered by a 279-horsepower V6 gas engine supported by a 20-horsepower electric motor, which enables a top speed of 155 mph and 0-60 mph acceleration in 7.2 seconds. The combination of a fuel motor with an electric motor stores brake energy released on acceleration.

What also makes this car different from other hybrid models out there is the fact that it is run with a 120-volt lithium ion battery, which is so small that it is mounted under the hood, so it doesn’t take up space in the rear of the car. The fact that the battery is able to be placed under the hood has several advantages, such as enabling engineers to integrate the battery with the vehicle climate control system to regulate it’s temperature ensuring optimal performance.

What makes this car different than other hybrids out there is the fact that it’s built on the B-Class platform which is a compact that is popular in Europe and Asia, but not yet available in North America.   Mercedes is planning on changing that and is planning to bring conventional  B-Class models to North America Mercedes dealers, and locally in Northbrook, used Mercedes-Benz dealers look forward to this new hybrid model.

Around Chicago, Certified Mercedes dealers will make 200 production F-Cell cars available to regular customers in the U.S. and Europe later this year, which will be under a special lease program for real-life testing. Also, in the next 7 years Mercedes plans to make their whole car line-up petroleum free. In order to achieve that they are looking at battery electric cars, fuel cells, and more efficient combustion engines that can run on biofuels.