Since the 1970s, when it was clear that the combustion engine powering motor vehicles was a major culprit in air pollution and also diminishing fossil fuel supplies, there has been a search for an alternative propulsion system that does not pollute and is also sustainable. Instead of fossil fuel – the product of dead dinosaurs and plants millions of years ago – electricity is the ‘fuel’ of the future.

Electricity is used to power motors and like liquid fuel, it is stored in a battery pack in a limited quantity which needs to be replenished. The electricity comes from power generating plants that run mainly on coal, which generates undesirable emissions. So while electric power is ‘clean’, the electricity itself comes from a source that is still not clean.

There are alternative electricity generation methods – hydro-electricity, solar and wind – but these are limited in use at this time. What has been seen as promising has been the fuel cell concept that was originally developed for spacecraft. This concept uses hydrogen as a fuel in an electrochemical process that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electrical energy and water.