Published June 8, 2012
By Philippe Crowe
As part of this year's World Hydrogen Energy Conference in Toronto, Canada, Daimler AG was given the IAHE Sir William Grove Award in recognition of his leadership in the field of fuel cell technology.
This price was awarded for the 8th time by the International Association for Hydrogen Energy in honor of the British inventor Sir William Grove, who the first produced electricity with the help of hydrogen and oxygen in 1839 and is considered to be the father of the fuel cell.
Starting its research activities in the 1980s, Daimler introduced its first fuel cell electric vehicle, the NECAR 1, in 1994. Since that time, Daimler continues to focus on fuel cell technology, saying it as a resource-saving alternative to the combustion engine and has developed until now a number of models with this alternative drive system: From passenger cars to city buses. Performance and reliability were steadily enhanced while reducing the size and weight of the drive system.
With the B-Class F-CELL, already delivered to customers in Europe and the US since 2010, the company has reached series conditions and is now planning to launch the next generation of electric vehicles with fuel cell.