Ballard Power Systems, one of the pioneers in fuel cell technology for vehicles, is about to give up the elusive dream. The company confirm that it is in talks with GM and Daimler to sell its fuel cell business because the market to commercialization is moving too slowly.

While Honda and GM are testing prototypes and saying that the cars might be sold to fleets within a few years, the technology still doesn't seem much closer than 20 years ago, when it was first thought to be about 20 years away.

One of the biggest reasons why fuel cell cars might never take off (aside from affordable methods of producing and distributing hydrogen) is because of the resurgence of electric vehicles and emergence of fuel cell vehicles.

If electricity made from renewable power can be stored in batteries to replace some to all of the gasoline a driver uses, why is there a need to spend billions on a hydrogen infrastructure? I'd like to see a head to head comparison of the energy efficiency and cost from renewable electricity to batteries to vehicle with renewable energy to hydrogen (using electrolysis) to vehicles.

If the Chevy Volt or other plug-in hybrids or EVS are successful, the need for fuel cell vehicles is greatly diminished. They could make sense in remote locations where transmitting electricity is difficult, or in fleet situations where cars can recharge everyday.