Hydrogen fuel cell cars hit the road. GM hits panic button.

An eighteen hundred mile demo tour has begun. Hydrogen powered cars will wend across North America for days, having left from Chula Vista today. The run ends June 3 in Vancouver. Here's the official website for Hydrogen Road Tour 2009. The site includes a map of the route up the Pacific Coast and even GPS real-time tracking. Among the car manufacturers participating is Daimler. A-Class F-CELL is the designation Daimler gives to the thirty cars now operating in Michigan and California. These vehicles were launched in 2004. Daimler is expecting to launch next generation B-Class fuel cell cars soon.

The Daimler F-Cell. Other fuel cell cars in the caravan were made by GM, Honda, Hyundai, KIA, Nissan, Toyota and VW. GM, of course, is about to declare bankruptcy. VW meanwhile is going to work with a Chinese battery company partially owned by Warren Buffett. VW's interested in building more electric and hybrid vehicles. And VW is NOT in any apparent danger of going bankrupt as it is partially owned by a German state government. Here you can see pics of each car in the caravan and read about its specs. If you live on the Pacific Coast you can click here to try to see these fuel cell cars.