Major Automakers To Cooperate On Standard Fuel Storage.

A group of top automakers aims to jointly develop technology to allow fuel cell cars to cover similar distances as gasoline engine cars, a Japanese newspaper reported. The unprecedented effort on fuel cells brings together companies including Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor, DaimlerChrysler AG and Ford Motor, financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) said.

The group of around 20 auto makers and car parts manufacturers will aim to extend the distance fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) can run before refueling to around 500 km (311 miles) by increasing the fuel storage capacity of the cars, the paper said. Toyota and Honda Motor launched the world's first FCVs simultaneously last month, but they can cover only around 300 km (186 miles) before refueling, one of the drawbacks of the environmentally friendly cars.

The group of car and car parts makers will aim to develop by the end of 2005 fuel tanks which can hold 40 percent more high-pressure hydrogen than current fuel cells, Nikkei added. Developing such tanks single-handedly would be costly for one firm, and if the autoparts manufacturers can standardize specifications, it will save them the need to supply each of the car makers with different tanks and allow for mass production, the paper said.

FCVs runs on electricity produced by mixing hydrogen fuel and oxygen, and their only by-products are heat and water. Nikkei said some of the autoparts makers taking part included Kokan Drum Co, subsidiary of NKK Corp and Canadian firm Powertech.