By James Jose
New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) Britain-based Intelligent Energy, a pioneer in the hydrogen fuel cell technology, is pursuing Indian auto firms to produce vehicles that run on this clean fuel, a senior company official said here Tuesday.

“We are in talks with some car makers and two-wheeler manufacturers here. But the talks are in nascent stages,” Murali Arikara, the company’s executive vice president for emerging markets, told IANS at the ongoing Auto Expo here.

Intelligent Energy is in the advanced stages of developing a hydrogen fuel cell-powered scooter and bike with Suzuki. “This is in the testing phase and the progress has been very satisfactory,” Arikara said.

The bike, the first in the world to be powered by this technology, can attain a top speed of 50 km per hour and has a range of 100 miles on full charge. Refuelling time is short — about three minutes — and there are no emissions.

According to auto experts, the cost of manufacturing is prohibitive with many vehicles still in the testing stage. The cost of making such a car was around $1 million a few years ago, they said.

Nevertheless, they maintained that the cost has been coming down considerably with players like US-based General Motors and Japan’s Toyota planning to sell electric cars powered by hydrogen by 2015.

“What you need is infrastructure. A few years ago, there were no CNG (compressed natural gas) stations in Delhi. Now you have so many vehicles running on it. If you have the infrastructure, costs can come down significantly,” said Arikara.

“So when it eventually happens — which is not very far — the cost will be competitive with conventional vehicles.”