Green Power

The odds are stacked against replacing an established technology such as the gas-powered internal combustion engine overnight. But the partnership's members realize that those odds become a lot less daunting if they can rely on a well-oiled alliance.

While car companies, fuel companies, fuel-cell manufacturers, and government agencies had all been conducting their own experiments, the partnership's West Sacramento site, opened in 2000, provides a technological sandbox where they can all play together. "We use the word 'coopetition' a lot here," says Catherine Dunwoody, the partnership's executive director. "These engineers are extremely competitive, but they have lots of reasons to cooperate if they want to see the United States develop an infrastructure to support hydrogen vehicles."

The 20 partnership members -- ranging from BP to Volkswagen to United Technologies to the U.S. Department of Energy to Hyundai -- conduct their own research and development. But they wanted to be able to share a single hydrogen fueling station so that they could make sure that it was designed to work with all of the vehicles, and vice versa. Partnership members also share some equipment, such as an indoor, car-sized treadmill for testing. Shared equipment, as well as the regularly scheduled group test-drives, promotes interaction among the members.

The partnership also holds regular open houses, inviting the public to the facility for test rides. That's vital, says Adam Gromis, program specialist at the partnership, because many consumers have one association when they hear the word "hydrogen": the Hindenburg. While hydrogen is susceptible to leaking and igniting more easily than gasoline, it actually has much less explosive energy by volume. And the only output from the tailpipe of a hydrogen car is warm water vapor.

By 2007, the partnership hopes to help its members put 300 fuel-cell vehicles on California's roads. Currently, there are just 37. The vehicles are still prohibitively expensive. One Toyota staffer, Darryl Umale, puts the price of a prototype hydrogen- powered Highlander SUV into context by remarking, "You are looking at 20 Lamborghinis." But Toyota is here, alongside General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, and others, to try to bring that price down and to make hydrogen-powered vehicles a viable option. "Everyone who's involved with the partnership knows that they need one another to succeed," Dunwoody says. "If any one of them were to try to do it alone, they couldn't make it work."