The three new cars, prototypes of the green vehicle fleet serving the Beijing Olympics, will be used in Beijing's hi-tech zone, or Zhongguancun Area, for public transportation in an 8.19-km route.

The experimental commercial use of the fuel cell cars is the first of its kind in any developing country.

The Beijing Public Transportation Corporation has prepared all facilities for hydrogen refilling, which is vital for fuel cell cars, data collection systems, training for drivers and service management.

The Global Environment Fund and the United Nations Development Program supported the experimental project for promoting free-emission fuel cell cars in China, which will host the 2008 summer Olympics and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

The three cars were shown at the Fourth International Clean Vehicle Technology Conference and Exhibition.

At the inaugural for the exhibition, Ma Songde, vice-minister of Science and Technology, said that the development of energy-saving vehicles is one task for build an energy-saving society and an environment-friendly economy.

As the world's most populous country and a developing one, Ma said, China should cultivate an auto industry oriented for saving energy and protecting the environment.

Fuel cells transfer hydrogen to electric power, which produces no pollution. Many big auto companies in the world invest much into the research and development of such environment-friendly vehicles.

An industrial policy guideline issued by the government in 2004 supported the development of vehicles using clean energies.

Ma said Chinese companies need to combine their own innovative capacity with the latest technologies licensed by multinational auto makers to shape the cutting-edge in the industry.

At present, Chinese auto makers have already developed more than 100 kinds of hybrid cars and fuel cell cars, many of which were shown at the Beijing exhibition.