DC, UPS Deliver with Fuel Cell Power

In yet another in a lengthening list of fuel cell vehicle (FCV) demonstration initiatives, DaimlerChrysler AG announces it and global delivery service giant United Parcel Service will cooperate in a program to put fuel cell-powered delivery vehicles on the road in this southeast Michigan college town.

DC will supply UPS with fuel cell-powered Dodge Sprinter cargo vans as well as an “F-Cell” car, based on the current Mercedes A-Class-derived FCV prototypes being demonstrated by DC worldwide. UPS says the F-Cell car will go into service late this year for early morning deliveries; the Sprinter vans, which UPS calls “package cars,” will begin service next year.

Initially, only one fuel-cell Sprinter will be in service, says Tom Weidemeyer, UPS Chief Operating Officer and president of UPS Airlines. It will be fueled with gaseous hydrogen — which the fuel cell combines with oxygen to make electricity for the van's electric drive motors — at a new fueling station to be constructed at the Environmental Protection Agency's National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory here.

Weidemeyer says the fuel-cell Sprinter van will have a range of approximately 150 miles (240 km) and will be used every day in routine service, just like the 2,500-odd diesel-powered Sprinters UPS uses worldwide.