As Gizmag reports, Mercedes-Benz announced today that a small fleet of 200 B-Class F-Cell electric/hydrogen vehicles will be available later this year in both Europe and the United States. The zero-emissions car will have a range of 248.5 miles per charge, will take three minutes to refuel with hydrogen, and will get more than 71 miles per gallon of diesel fuel.

We have to say, while hybrid news has been flying around lately, hydrogen fuel-cell news has definitely been in short supply. Exhaust Notes called up Mercedes-Benz spokesman Rob Moran for comment. Here's what he had to say:

"When it comes to alternative powertrains, Mercedes-Benz has always taken a comprehensive view. It began, of course, with diesel, which we're still invested in, followed by the S-400 hybrid and then the ML450 dual hybrid, all the way up to the new small fleet of B-Class F-Cells. In other words, we're exploring the full definition of alternative fuels, we're looking at embracing hybrid technologies in our performance vehicles; in short, we're not putting all our eggs in any one basket. If you look at the time line we laid out two years ago at Frankfurt in our "Road to the Future" display, we began by mapping out things such as more efficient stop-start engine technologies and tire advancements, and it led all the way up to the B-Class F-Cell, which was slated for, I believe, 2014. Obviously, people are starting to embrace this technology now."

More details about the U.S.-specific models will come shortly. Stay tuned.