A pilot model of an automobile run on hydrogen fuel could be out on the roads by next year, after an MoU was signed by ISRO and Tata Motors.

“It is a spin-off from the expertise we have acquired in developing the cryogenic stage,” said ISRO chairman, G Madhavan Nair. “We have considerable experience in hydrogen control and storage which we hope to transfer to the automobile sector.”

The chassis is being developed, he said, explaining that there will be no engine as it will be electrically driven. Nair was hopeful that the technology would pick up,“It can be a very good fuel which is pollution free. However, we have not yet mastered the fuel cell technology,” he said.

ISRO had recently announced the successful testing of its indigenous cryogenic stage to be used as the upper stage for the GSLV. Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen maintained at very low sub-zero temperatures are fed into the combustion chamber where they are mixed and ignited to obtain large thrusts.