New Milestones for the Alternative Fuel Autos

More signs the international automotive industry is investing heavily in the future of alternative vehicles.

On Tuesday, Mitsubishi Motors MMTOF and the Renault-Nissan Alliance announced plans to share “products, technologies and manufacturing capacity among the automakers.” And according to a press statement, that means going beyond the current NMKV joint venture company Nissan NSANF and Mitsubishi already have – to extend and co-develop a new small car, “including a specific electric version,” to be sold internationally.The companies also said they would share electric vehicle technologies and assets for future platforms.

At the same time, Toyota Motors TM is unveiling five concept cars this week at the Tokyo Motor Show – including its hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle (fcv). The company plans to launch its four-seat, FCV Concept around 2015. According to the Toyota web site, the vehicle has a driving range of at least 500 kilometers (310 miles) and a refueling time of around three minutes – the same as for a conventional car.There's no word yet regarding the FCV Concept's cost , however – or how the company will deal with the dramic lack of hydrogen filling stations. Acording to the Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center, are only ten hydrogen filling stations in the U.S., with all but one of them located in California. In comparison, there are nearly 7,000 electric vehicle charging stations nationwide.But Catherine Dunwoody, executive director of the California Fuel Cell Partnership, tells the Los Angeles Times there should be 28 hydrogen stations across her state by the time Toyota brings its new fuel cell vehicle to market.

While the hydrogen fuel cell technology may have been used for decades in NASA spacecraft, it's still in its infancy here on earth when it comes to cars. But observers say it may end up competing with electric-drive vehicles (EVs) in the upcoming years.“I see fuel cells as a technology for the decade of the 2020s, “Alan Baum, an independent auto analyst at Baum & Associates tells Bloomberg, “with a small but growing ramp-up in the first half of the decade, not unlike what we are seeing now with EVs.”