Renault-Nissan Looking Past Batteries to Fuel Cells

Renault-Nissan Looking Past Batteries to Fuel Cells

Nissan X Fuel Cell Vehicle will begin making rounds in Europe next month.

Nissan and Renault haven't started making and marketing their much-anticipated battery-electric cars yet, but already are moving beyond batteries to hydrogen fuel cells.

The first, previously announced, steps in the Renault-Nissan Alliance's "zero-emission motoring future," as the companies call it, is to begin selling battery EVs in the U.S. and Japan by the end of 2010 and to mass-market them in Israel and Denmark beginning in 2011 as part of an energy independence program developed by California entrepreneur Shai Agassi and his Project Better Place foundation.

Step Two, the companies said Thursday, is to continue development of fuel-cell electric vehicles. Nissan presently is testing a model it calls that X-Trail Fuel Cell Vehicle, or FCV, in Japan, and Renault has used Nissan's fuel-cell stack, lithium-ion batteries and high-pressure hydrogen storage tank system to build its own FCV. It's called the Scenic ZEV H2 (for zero emissions vehicle, hydrogen) and is based on the five-seat Renault Grand Scenic minivan (left ).

This summer, both fuel-cell vehicles will take to the roads in Europe for extended testing.

Nissan's X-Trail FCV will be demonstrated in six countries from June through September, while Renault plans to show off the Scenic ZEV H2 at a company-sponsored Environmental workshop in Barcelona in late June.

John O'Dell. Senior Editor

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.