The German luxury car manufacturer Daimler and the world’s largest automotive group Toyota are considering a joint development of fuel cells for electric vehicles, media reported on Tuesday.
"There is a strong interest in sharing development costs" through a joint project, a source close to Daimler told Financial Times Deutschland. This would be the first major joint project between the two companies, the newspapers reported. Fuel cells use the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity in a process that does not emit greenhouse gases, the main cause of global warming. However, the production of the necessary hydrogen can result in the creation of these gases, and therefore there are certain doubts regarding the impact of this process on the environment. Daimler has invested more than one billion euros ($1.23 billion) in fuel cell technology since 1994, two years after Toyota began researching them. At the end of last week, American electric car manufacturer Tesla announced that Toyota would acquire a stake in the company, thus joining Daimler, which already owns a stake of over five percent. (H)
