Mercedes-Benz, or to be exact, German car magazine Autobild, has released a series of sketches previewing the "Concept BlueZero" that will allegedly make its worldwide debut at the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit on January 11. The all-electric concept car is said to give us a first taste of the next generation Mercedes-Benz B-Class that's scheduled to hit dealerships in early 2010. The most anticipated version of the luxury 5-door hatch will be a fuel-cell powered variant which is expected to go on sale during 2010. According to Mercedes-Benz, it will be the first series production model to be offered with such a drivetrain.The 2010 B-Class Fuel Cell model will be powered by a new generation of fuel-cell drive that is much more compact than other systems while at the same time offering better performance and, according to Mercedes, will be completely suitable for everyday use.
The electric motor used on the prototype B-Class Fuel-Cell develops a maximum output of 136HP and a torque figure of 320 Nm. Merc's engineers claim that the fuel cell model will give better acceleration figures than a B-Class fitted with a standard 2.0-liter petrol engine while consuming the equivalent of just 2.9 liters of fuel (diesel equivalent) per 100 km or 81.1 mpg US.
