Welcome to Tomorrow

During the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show last October, Mercedes Benz announced that they would offer a limited release consumer test trial of their hydrogen fuel cell car beginning sometime in 2011.  They would allow a few select participants an opportunity to lease an electric car based on their European B-Class cars which we don't get here in the US. Part of the qualifications included certain geographical requirements due to the limited number of hydrogen fueling stations that were available.  In addition, applicants had to explain in an essay why they wanted to be selected so they can hunker down $900 of their hard earned dollars every month for the privilege to drive what could otherwise be called a Pontiac Vibe looking tallish station wagon thingie that should cost no more than $25,000 to buy.

This was a technology I truly believed in to be the real next step in personal mobility and sustainable energy.  More on how a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle actually works in a later blog, but basically, it's a pure electric powered car that uses hydrogen to produce its own electricity.  Unlike a Nissan Volt electric car that uses a battery to store its energy like a cell phone or a laptop, and needs to be plugged in and recharged all the time, a hydrogen fuel cell car never needs to be plugged in and only needs to be refilled with hydrogen just like you would fill a normal car with gasoline.  

Where do you fill up with hydrogen?  Well, that's a topic also for another blog but basically this is the biggest thing to happen to cars since... well the invention of cars itself.  There were many different types of propulsion systems that were experimented during the dawn of the self propelled car, and ultimately, the internal combustion engine won out due to the abundance and relative affordability of fossil fuels at the turn of the century.  And we've been chugging along, virtually unchanged for over 100 years.  

And now, Mercedes Benz was offering an opportunity for average Joe Commuter to lease one of these 'cars of tomorrow' today.  So I logged on and wrote up an essay explaining my interest.  I honestly stated that I'm not a environmental nut that recycles my toe nails and wears clothing made from sustainable Portuguese donkey hair.  I'm just a normal guy who actually tries to stop global warming by eating lots of beef because I know it's not passenger cars or factories that cause the most ozone destruction, but farting cows and the methane produced by their digestive flatulence.  

And much to my surprise, I received a call in December saying I had been selected to be a participant in their trial program for the Mercedes F-Cell.  And that's how this all began.