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Photos: Volkswagen HyMotion fuel cell vehicle

Volkswagen showed off its fourth generation fuel cell research vehicle in San Francisco, making its North American debut. This vehicle, built into Volkswagen's new Tiguan crossover model, uses hydrogen to create electricity, providing power for the car's electric drive motor. It also has a lithium ion battery pack for extra electricity storage, and gets the gasoline equivalent of 42-to-62 miles per gallon. A Volkswagen spokesman predicted a consumer version in 7 years to 10 years, when a hydrogen refueling infrastructure is built up.

Click here for photos of the Volkswagen HyMotion fuel cell vehicle.

Trivia question: How many plug-in hybrids have been made?

You've probably read quite a bit about plug-in hybrids. Plug-ins contain more battery cells than regular hybrids and thus can get between 70 to 100 miles to the gallon.

Converting your Prius to a plug-in reduces your gas costs to around $1 a gallon and results in far fewer emissions in most cases.. They can even be used to send electricity to the grid and prevent a brown-out.

So how many are there on the road? 50, according to Felix Kramer, president of Calcars, which promotes the concept and is trying to persuade lawmakers to pass tax breaks for … Read more