Major automotive manufacturers Daimler, Ford and Nissan have signed a three-way agreement to accelerate the commercialisation of fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) technology.

The goal of the collaboration was to jointly develop a common fuel-cell electric vehicle system, while reducing the investment costs associated with the engineering of the technology, as well as speed up the availability of zero-emission technology.

The strategy to maximise design commonality and derive efficiencies through economies of scale would help to launch the world’s first affordable, mass-market FCEVs as early as 2017, the partners said in a statement on Monday.

They planned to develop a common fuel-cell stack and fuel-cell system that could be used by each company in highly differentiated, separately branded FCEVs, which did not produce carbon dioxide emissions while driving.

“This collaboration sends a clear signal to suppliers, policymakers and industry to encourage the further development of hydrogen refueling stations and other infrastructure necessary to allow these vehicles to be mass-marketed,” the alliance said.

Engineering work on both the fuel-cell stack and the fuel-cell system would be jointly conducted by the three companies at several global locations, while the partners would continue to study the joint development of other FCEV components.

The collaboration across three continents and three companies would also help to define global specifications and component standards – an important prerequisite for the achievement of higher economies of scale.

Each company would invest equally in the project.

“Working together will significantly aid in pushing this technology to market at a more affordable cost to our customers. We will all benefit from this relationship, as the resulting solution will be better than any one company working alone,” Ford global product development group VP Raj Nair said.

Daimler management board member Thomas Weber added that Daimler believed fuel-cell vehicles would play a central role in zero-emission mobility and said the alliance would enable greater accessibility to this fuel-cell technology.