Don’t Discount Your Trainees – Check Out the Mercedes-Benz F-Cell Roadster

As a junior employee at a large multinational automaker you might think that your daily tasks would revolve around sourcing the most functional ball bearing or working on a new type of door handle. And that may be true. But, Mercedes-Benz is looking to encourage its younger employees to think out of the box. For over a year, 150 trainees were tasked with creating the F-Cell Roadster to further their understanding of alternative-fuel systems and afford them the opportunity to take a design concept from start to finished assembly.

Forget about those 30 inch chrome wheels you see in the music videos. How about rolling on monster spoke bicycle tires? As a throwback to the 1886 Benz Patent Motor Car, the team took visual cues from this aesthetic in creating their future forward design. The vehicle has carbon fiber seats with hand-stitched leather covers and a fiberglass body straight out of F1. Drive-by-wire technology is used to control the Mercedes F-Cell Roadster with a joystick taking the place of a traditional steering wheel. An emission-free fuel cell system enclosed in an ultra cool see-through compartment in the rear allows the car to reach a top speed of a little over 15 mph with a range of 217 miles.

Source: Mercedes-Benz