Daimler's Mercedes-Benz Killing Its Hydrogen Fuel Cell Program; Are EVs Next? -- April 26, 2020

Link here. Electrek, April 23, 2020 --

After 30 Years Of Trying, Mercedes-Benz Ends Hydrogen Car Development Because It’s Too Costly.

Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz is killing its program to develop passenger cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

The company has been working on fuel-cell vehicles for more than 30 years — chasing the dream of a zero-emissions car that has a long driving range, three-minute fill-ups, and emits only water vapor. In the end, the company conceded that building hydrogen cars was too costly, about double the expense of an equivalent battery-electric vehicle.

Mercedes-Benz will wind down production of GLC F-Cell, its only current fuel-cell model. The GLC-F-Cell was developed in a 2013 collaboration with Ford and Nissan.

The idea of the collaboration was to kickstart the production of fuel-cell cars and hydrogen infrastructure. Mercedes-Benz was the only carmaker of the three partners to produce a vehicle in the program.

Mercedes-Benz only made a few hundred examples of the GLC F-Cell because manufacturing costs for the model were so high. The car was used for business promotions but was never offered for sale to the public.

A huge "thanks" to a reader for sending this my way. 

After 30 years of trying, Mercedes-Benz ends hydrogen car development because it’s too costly. This is what the company is saying:

"Fuel cells work great. It's just a cost issue, and it's all about scaling. We need volume."

Using that logic ... "it's just a cost issue, and it's all about scaling. We need volume...." their EV program would be next to be killed.

I think automobile manufacturers have been working with EVs since the 1870's.