Kimi Raikkonen Swaps Race Car for Fuel Cell Bus

McLaren Mercedes formula one driver Kimi Raikkonen took time out of his Australian Grand Prix pre-race preparations to get behind the wheel of a zero-emission fuel cell bus today.

Afterwards, Raikkonen test-drove a zero-emission fuel cell bus that is being used throughout this week’s Australian Grand Prix for VIP track tours. The bus is one of two brought from Perth to Melbourne for the Grand Prix, to showcase environmentally friendly urban transport.

The zero emission fuel cell bus is part of a two year trial in Perth, Australia, which involves three Mercedes-Benz Citaro city buses with fuel cell drive by DaimlerChrysler. They have been operated by Path Transit, the local public transport authorities since September 2004, allowing commuters in the city to ride the zero-emission buses each day.

The Australian trial, which last year picked up a prestigious environmental award for leadership in sustainable transport from the Banksia Environmental Foundation, is part of DaimlerChrysler’s worldwide roadmap to sustainable mobility. The buses are part of a fleet of over 30 fuel cell buses the company has in operation around the world in order to gain real world experience in day-to-day operation in its pursuit of emission-free mobility solutions.

According to President and CEO of DaimlerChrysler Australia/Pacific, Ernst H. Lieb, the accomplishments of the Australian trial are, in large part, due to the success of the collaborative partnerships led by the West Australian government. In fact, DaimlerChrysler has had a longstanding partnership with the West Australian Government and is currently in the process of fulfilling an order that calls for more than 800 buses over ten years.

Although the Australian trial is not scheduled to conclude until later this year, this month seven European cities, which operate Mercedes-Benz Citaro fuel cell buses as part of the European fuel cell bus projects CUTE (Clean Urban Transport for Europe) and ECTOS (Ecological City Transport System), decided to continue the project with a total of 27 buses for one more year.

"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 Reykjavik as 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 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 demonstration 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.

Progress that purrs

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 approximately 200 kilometers and a top speed of 80 km/h.

Optimal effectiveness combined with top driving comfort

DaimlerChrysler is a pioneering company that is leading the development 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.

WorldCarFans.com