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Fuel Cell Vehicles

Photo of a silvery blue compact Honda FLX fuel cell vehicle with a driver and two passengers (one in the back seat). It's being driven away from the curb. Brown mountains and trees, including palm trees, rise in the background.

On the outside, fuel cell vehicles don't look much different from conventional vehicles.

For decades, NASA has used fuel cells to provide auxiliary power for spacecrafts. Today, we can use fuel cells to provide auxiliary power such as lights in vehicles as well as the power that moves the wheels—propulsion. Fuel cell vehicles aren't yet commercially available because of their cost, but in the future they could provide us with a pollution-free transportation fuel option—hydrogen.

Fuel cell vehicles typically use hydrogen—a gaseous fuel—stored in onboard fuel tanks. When you fill the tank with hydrogen fuel, it basically recharges the vehicle. Inside the fuel cell, hydrogen and oxygen combine to produce electricity. The electricity is then stored in a battery, which powers the vehicle's electric motor and other electronics. See information about hydrogen fuel cells to learn more about how they work.

Pure hydrogen fuel cell vehicles emit no air pollutants, only heat and water vapor. See hydrogen basics for more information.

NREL's fuel cell vehicle research combines both advanced vehicle systems research, and hydrogen and fuel cell research.

Also see the U.S. Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center for more information about hydrogen vehicles.