The Californian Necars will run on hydrogen carried in three tanks at pressures of up to 350 bar, and giving a range of about 200km. The Necar 5 uses a reformer to extract the hydrogen fuel for the fuel cell from methanol which is a liquid at room temperatute and can be easily transported and stored with current infra-structure.
Methanol is a by product of oil refineries and can be made by fermentation of plant material.
The methanol reformer and the fuel cell are fitted in the underbody of the modified A-class. In the past six years. DaimlerChrysler has already equipped and presented 16 passenger cars, vans and buses with fuel cell drives - more than the total of all its competitors worldwide.