Sev­eral major automak­ers have signed agree­ments to develop fuel-cell tech­nol­ogy, tar­get­ing their use in elec­tric cars, and beyond.

Find out more about upcom­ing fuel-cell development.

Daim­ler AG and Nis­san Motor Co. signed an agree­ment with Ford Motor Co. to develop fuel-cell tech­nol­ogy together for elec­tric cars.

The part­ners plan to intro­duce the first mass-market fuel– cell elec­tric mod­els in 2017 and are tar­get­ing pro­duc­tion of at least 100,000 cars, Thomas Weber, Daimler’s head of research and devel­op­ment, said today at a press con­fer­ence in Nabern, Ger­many. The man­u­fac­tur­ers will invest equal amounts in the project to develop fuel-cell stacks and sys­tems, they said in a joint state­ment, with­out giv­ing details.

Toy­ota Motor Co., the world’s biggest car­maker, and Munich-based Bay­erische Motoren Werke AG, the largest luxury-car man­u­fac­turer, announced a part­ner­ship on Jan. 24 to develop fuel-cell sys­tems, in addi­tion to coop­er­a­tion in other areas includ­ing light-weight tech­nolo­gies and a com­mon sports-car platform

Joint devel­op­ments allow the man­u­fac­tur­ers to share costs and achieve higher vol­umes once pro­duc­tion starts. Daim­ler and its part­ners are using their project to send a “clear sig­nal” to gov­ern­ments and sup­pli­ers of the need to develop a hydro­gen– fuel­ing infra­struc­ture worldwide.