Europe’s biggest carmaker has been researching the fuel cell for more than seven years and claims the high-temperature cell can run more efficiently, with less environmental impact, than the more common low-temperature fuel cells.

"We believe the future belongs to the high-temperature gas cell. The low-temperature gas cell hardly can compare when it comes to mass production," said Jürgen Leohold, head of Volkswagen’s corporate research, as reported by fuelcellworks.com. The new cell "will make the overall system in the car lighter, more compact, stable and cheaper," he added.

The high-temperature fuel cell, or HTFC, differs because it is lighter, smaller and could be used in vehicles ranging from a subcompact to a truck. "Those are the decisive criteria for putting fuel cells on the path toward mass series production," said Leohold.

Volkswagen’s HTFC fuel cells have new, thinner membranes and electrodes that conceal the complex process of extracting electrical energy from chemical energy to power the electrical engine of fuel-cell cars.

Low-temperature fuel cells operate at a temperature of approximately 80 degrees Celsius, or about 176 degrees Fahrenheit, but if the energy conversion process gets too hot, the fuel cells can overheat and become damaged.

"This is why the vehicle prototypes with LT fuel cells have an extremely sophisticated and expensive cooling system," Volkswagen said in a statement.

Instead, the high-temperature membrane developed by Volkswagen can handle temperatures of as much as 120 degrees Celsius, or about 248 Fahrenheit, using phosphoric acid and a much smaller cooling system.