Hydrogen cars on tour

Despite tough competition with cellulosic biofuels, clean diesels, and plug-in gas-electric hybrids, hydrogen is steadily emerging as a future fuel. But even this early - and with only a few dozen fueling stations across the country - eight automakers this week are flaunting their R&D departments with a 31-city 'Hydrogen Road Tour' co-sponsored by the US Department of Energy. Most of the cars are rolling research labs, but a few are in limited production. The tour started in Portland, Maine, yesterday (as US Senator Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, looked on) and will stop in Billerica and Cambridge, Mass., as well as Wallingford, Conn., before finishing in Santa Monica, Calif., next week. - Clifford Atiyeh, Boston.com Staff
Despite tough competition with cellulosic biofuels, clean diesels, and plug-in gas-electric hybrids, hydrogen is steadily emerging as a future fuel.

But even this early - and with only a few dozen fueling stations across the country - eight automakers this week are flaunting their R&D departments with a 31-city "Hydrogen Road Tour" co-sponsored by the US Department of Energy. Most of the cars are rolling research labs, but a few are in limited production.

The tour started in Portland, Maine, yesterday (as US Senator Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, looked on) and will stop in Billerica and Cambridge, Mass., as well as Wallingford, Conn., before finishing in Santa Monica, Calif., next week.

- Clifford Atiyeh,
Boston.com Staff

(AP Photo/BMW North America)