Honda Motor Co. Ltd. said in a statement the experiment involving its FCX fuel-cell vehicle would begin later this month on the southern Japanese island of Yakushima, as part of the consortium's "zero-emission project."

The world's carmakers are vying for the lead in development of fuel cells, of which the main by-product is water, for environmentally-friendly vehicles.

But conventional methods of producing hydrogen for such fuel cells rely on fossil fuels including oil and natural gas, generating carbon dioxide -- which is blamed for contributing to global warming -- in the process.

In the new project, hydrogen is manufactured through water electrolysis by using electricity generated at a power plant on the isle, which ideally suited with rivers cascading down steep mountains some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) southwest of Tokyo.

The gas produced is stored at a "hydrogen station" and supplied to the FCX vehicle for road tests on Yakushima starting in late April, the statement said.

The hydrogen station was completed in late March by Yakushima Denko Co., an affiliate of Taiheiyo Cement Corp., which has been operating the power plant.

The project is being run by a corporate-academic consortium led by the laboratory of Honda, Kagoshima University and Yakushima Denko.

Honda said the FCX fuel-cell car, which uses the Honda FC Stack battery and was unveiled last October, can start in temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius (4 Fahrenheit).

The car's range on one tank has increased to 395 kilometers (245 miles) from the present 355 kilometers, Honda said, adding that fuel economy has improved by 10 percent.

In 2002, Honda and its Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. became the world's first automakers to begin leasing fuel-cell cars powered by electricity generated from oxygen and pressurized hydrogen gas.

But high production costs and a lack of infrastructure for pumping hydrogen are still seen as hurdles to clear before they can reach ordinary car buyers.

TERRA.WIRE