Daimler-Benz News from April 2, 1995

On-Board Power Plant:

The NECAR Fuel Cell Vehicle
generates electricity from hydrogen
- efficiently and without pollution

Hannover, April 2, 1995
Hidden away inside the cargo space of a van, scientists from Daimler-Benz Research are studying the potential of fuel cell technology as an alternative power source for cars and trucks. The project's acronym, NECAR, stands for "New Electric Car."

Although the NECAR is in principle an electric car, there is, however, one essential difference - this electric vehicle does not get its electricity from a storage battery. Instead, it generates electrical energy using its own on-board power plant. In this way, it avoids the main weakness of previous electric automobiles: the need to store electricity in a bulky, heavy battery.

Fuel cells capable of generating electricity by an electrochemical method are the key to the NECAR power plant. In contrast to a battery, the fuel cell does not have to be charged with electricity first, but obtains its energy directly from a fuel - hydrogen in the case of the NECAR. The hydrogen bonds to oxygen in the air to form water. The bonding energy is converted into electricity by the NECAR system.

Highly-efficient energy conversion

The decisive advantages of the fuel cell derive from this principle. Because of the way the internal combustion engine works - producing power indirectly via heat - high energy losses are physically unavoidable. However, the fuel cell is not subject to this fundamental limitation. In a highly-efficient process, it converts the energy contained in the fuel into electricity, which in turn powers a highly-efficient electric motor. This gives the fuel cell clear energy advantages over internal combustion engines and battery-powered vehicles, both with respect to the vehicle itself, and with respect to the entire chain of conversion - from the primary source of energy to the rotating wheel.

Down the road to the "Zero Emission Vehicle"

A further advantage is the level of emissions. Basically, there aren't any. The electrochemical conversion of hydrogen produces nothing other than water: carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and other pollutants are conspicuous by their absence. Thus, according to the US. definition of the term, a hydrogen-driven fuel-cell vehicle is a genuine "zero emission vehicle."

Back to the Newsarchive