The Japanese car maker has obtained approval from the Japanese government on Dec. 13 to run on public roads the fuel-cell powered vehicle that it developed based on its X-Trail sport-utility model.

The latest fuel cell vehicle has a range of more than 370 kilometers, longer than the over 350 kilometers offered by its previous fuel-cell model launched in 2003.

Fuel-cell cars are powered by electricity generated from hydrogen, which has high energy density for its weight and generates no toxic exhaust gases. Global auto makers are increasing efforts to develop more advanced vehicles based on the promising technology.

The size of the fuel-cell stack installed in Nissan's latest offering has been decreased 60% from the previous model but its power generation capacity has been boosted to 90 kilowatts from 85 kilowatts, bringing the maximum speed to 150 kilometers per hour from 145 kilometers per hour.

The auto maker developed the stack for the current model independently, though it used a stack developed by UTC Fuel Cells of the U.S. in its previous fuel- cell vehicle.

Nissan is currently developing a more advanced fuel-cell model which can run for more than 500 kilometers and plans to launch testing on public roads in Canada in February.

Although fuel cell systems look to be superior to the gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles that are currently drawing attention from environmentally conscious customers, the high cost of developing such vehicles remains a major barrier for automakers.