Mercedes-Benz News - Mercedes-Benz unveils retrofuturistic F-Cell Roadster built by trainees

March 26, 2009 by tsikot

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Mercedes-Benz unveils retrofuturistic F-Cell Roadster built by trainees

Filed under: Etc., Hydrogen, Mercedes Benz, Green Daily

Mercedes-Benz F-Cell Roadster - Click above for high-res image gallery

Times may be tough, but that isn’t stopping Daimler from having a bit of expensive-looking fun with its trainees… so long as there’s an educational bent to it. What you see before you isn’t an artful series of renderings, it’s an actual time-warping fuel cell concept dubbed “F-CELL Roadster.”

It took a year and more than 150 trainees to create, but the entire project involved using “junior employees,” giving the company’s up-and-coming employees a creative way to learn how alternative-fuel systems come together.

The F-CELL Roadster marries Benz Patent Motor Car stylings with 21st century tech wonderfully, including that legendary vehicle’s general aesthetic and proportions, along with old-meets-new technologies like carbon-fiber buckets capped in hand-stitched leather and a drive-by-wire central control joystick.

The centerpiece, of course, is the Roadster’s fuel cell powertrain, which has a power rating of 1.2 kilowatts, a top speed of 25 kilometers-per-hour, and a range of 350 kilometers. That means you’ll have a long, slow trip, just like those adventuring motorists back at the turn of the century. Official press release posted after the jump.

Gallery: Mercedes-Benz F-CELL Roadster concept