Fans of fuel cell technology can rejoice – despite being in the shadow of electric cars over the last 12 months, there is still life in this new technology.

Nissan North America is now leasing its X-TRAIL Fuel Cell Vehicle to the Sacramento Coca-Cola Bottling Company.  Previously, Nissan, which actually began developing fuel cell vehicles back in 1996, had only used the technology in demonstration fleets – this represents the first commercial Nissan fuel cell vehicle lease in North America.

The lease will last for one year, with an option for two additional years, with the X-TRAIL FCV to be used for sales calls and public events.

As for the vehicle itself, it is based on the X-TRAIL SUV, which is available in Mexico, Japan and Europe. It is fitted with a Nissan-developed 90kW compact fuel cell stack, as well as a compact lithium-ion battery and high-pressure hydrogen storage cylinder. Its performance is reportedly close to that of a similarly sized internal combustion engine with versions of this generation capable of more than 95mph. 

Nissan has also announced that it is testing a next-generation fuel cell stack. The new fuel cell unit is 25 per cent smaller than the previous model and offers 1.4 times the power output.