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The European fuel cell bus projects CUTE (Clean Urban Transport for Europe) and ECTOS (Ecological City Transport System) will be continued in combination. Seven of the original ten cities operating fuel cell buses in regular service — Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid and Reykjavik — have decided to continue the project with a total of 27 buses for one more year, starting in January 2006.
"We're happy that our customers will be operating the buses for 12 more months," says Wolfgang Diez, who is responsible for DaimlerChrysler’s global bus operations. "That will consolidate and verify the operating data we've gathered over the past two years."
In addition to the operation of the fuel cell bus fleet, the extension of the contract also involves the development and demonstration of a test vehicle for fuel cell buses of the next generation.
"Clean and efficient drive technologies will increasingly be incorporated into local public transit systems. The extension of the bus project is an important step in this direction," says Prof. Herbert Kohler, Vice President, Body and Powertrain Research and Chief Environmental Officer of DaimlerChrysler.
Fuel cell vehicles operating all over the world
The CUTE project was launched at the end of 2001 by DaimlerChrysler, the European cities of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Porto, Stockholm and Stuttgart, and several infrastructure companies. Three more Mercedes-Benz fuel cell buses have been operating in Reykjavikas part of the ECTOS project, which is also funded by the EU.
In addition, the public transport systems of Beijing, China, and Perth, Australia, now also include three fuel cell buses each. By the end of December 2005, these 36 buses had been in operation for more than 75,000 hours and covered almost 1.1 million kilometers in all.
The test operations under everyday conditions have provided the developers with important information that will help them further increase the lifespan of the drive system, and especially of the fuel cell stacks. The current generation of fuel cell stacks has been in operation for more than 2,000 hours without any loss of performance — much longer than the engineers had expected. What's more, the operation of the fuel cell buses is helping to build up the hydrogen infrastructure that is necessary for the buses' daily operation. |
| The HyFLEET:CUTE hydrogen project |
The extension is associated with the HyFLEET:CUTE hydrogen project, and it is being sponsored by the European Commission as part of its Sixth Framework Program on research. The international demon-stration project concerning local public transportation in Europe involves the cooperation of 31 partners from politics, industry and science to promote the development of hydrogen technology.
The aim of the four-year project is to identify forward-looking drive concepts for city buses as well as technologies and processes for the production and distribution of hydrogen. |
The principle behind fuel cell drive systems is not only simple and highly efficient but is becoming increasingly convenient for mobile applications. Fuel cells generate electricity from the reaction of hydrogen with oxygen. They operate with a high degree of efficiency and emit only pure water vapor.
The fuel cell system and the compressed-gas bottles are located on the roof of the vehicle. This is also where the electricity used to power the 200 kW electric motor is generated from the hydrogen. Each bus can accommodate up to 70 passengers and has a range of approxi-mately 200 kilometers and a top speed of 80 km/h.
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| Optimal effectiveness combined with top driving comfort |
Optimal effectiveness combined with top driving comfort
DaimlerChrysler is a pioneering company that is leading the develop-ment of the fuel cell for automotive applications. More than a decade ago, the Group unveiled NECAR 1, the world's first fuel cell vehicle. In addition to the 36 buses, 60 Mercedes-Benz A-Class F-Cell passenger cars are being operated by customers in Singapore, Japan, Germany and the U.S. In the United States, UPS is delivering packages with its fleet of fuel cell Sprinters. All in all, more than 100 fuel cell vehicles from DaimlerChrysler are in operation all over the world — more than the number from any other automaker.
Additional information from DaimlerChrysler is available on the Internet at: www.media.daimlerchrysler.com/sustainability
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