On the site of the OMV service station at Stuttgart Airport, OMV in cooperation with Linde AG and Daimler AG is opening Baden-Württemberg’s first publicly accessible hydrogen filling station on 17 June 2009. The cooperation between the participating companies is subsidised by the State of Baden-Württemberg.  The hydrogen filling station will serve fuel-cell vehicles of the latest generation, such as the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL, with 700-bar high-pressure technology. Small-series production of this vehicle is to commence later this year in Germany.
“By entering the field of hydrogen technology we are protecting natural resources, while at the same time reducing our dependence on the import of fossil fuels,” said Baden-Württemberg’s Minister-President Günther H. Oettinger. The establishment of a public hydrogen infrastructure is considered by all parties to be crucial to the successful introduction of hydrogen-powered vehicles. Clusters in Berlin and Hamburg have already been established. Of the currently almost 30 hydrogen stations in Germany, six are integrated into public filling station operations. The cooperative project being carried out at Stuttgart Airport’s OMV filling station is now Germany’s seventh publicly accessible hydrogen station and the first in the State of Baden-Württemberg.