Mercedes-Benz F-CELL Roadster repeats Bertha Benz's historic journey

Cars have always had to prove they were a good choice. If it weren't for Bertha Benz, married to Carl Benz, they might not even have existed. Mrs. Benz, in 1888, took her two sons with her in the first long journey on an automobile, the Patent Motor Car, invented by Carl Benz in 1886 and considered to be the first car of the world. The trip was from Mannheim to Pforzheim, a distance of more than 106 km. We can consider that to be the first steps of the automobile. Now, in order to pay homage to that historic trip, Mercedes-Benz has put its F-CELL Roadster to repeat the same journey. And there are lots of similarities.



Just like combustion engines at that time, the fuel cells that power the F-CELL Roadster are trying to prove efficient, affordable and safe to customers and to the automobile industry as well.

Berthe did not have petrol stations to refuel her Patent Motor Car at the time. She had to buy Ligroin, the name petrol received back in 1888, in drugstores. The first one was in Wiesloch, and that drugstore, Stadt Apotheke, is still running, proud to be called the first gas station of the world. Fuel cells also need hydrogen refilling stations, something that tends to be more complicated than dealing with petrol.

Patent Motor Car was controlled by a stick, just as F-CELL Roadster. The difference is that there are no mechanical links between the stick and the wheels of the car in F-CELL Roadster. Drive-by-wire technologies, already used in airplanes, have to prove safe on automobiles, too.

The F-CELL Roadster has been created by more than 150 trainees from Daimler AG and is able to reach a top speed of 25 km/h, possibly because it would not brake in a safe way with these narrow bicycle wheels. It may not be fast, but it can go far away, more specifically 350 km, powered solely by its fuel cells, able to produce 1.2 kW.











Source: Daimler AG