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South Korean car maker, Kia, has pledged to begin small-scale production of hydrogen fuel cell engines in vehicles within the next three years.

According to a plan released to journalists in Seoul, Kia, along with its parent company Hyundai, will roll out around 1,000 zero-emission fuel cell engine vehicles in 2012, with the longer term aim of making the vehicles commercially viable by 2015, at which point production will ramp up to 10,000 units per year.

Early problems such as cold starting that’s caused by water freezing in the fuel stack have been solved by Hyundai Kia Motor engineers that have been working on the technology since 2000 at its Mabuk-ri R&D facility in Korea. Earlier this year Kia successfully completed front, side and rear-crash safety tests with fuel cell versions of the Sportage and Borrego.

But the greatest challenge remains cost. Producing 50,000 fuel cell cars a year they would currently have to cost  $50,000 US each.  According to management, it’s for that reason why Kia’s fuel cell cars will first be leased rather than sold. From what I can see, they are about 60 to 70% completed with the project, the rest of the project taking more time.

Hydrogen cars seem to be the wave of the future. They will compete with hybrid card and full plug-in cars. By the time they hit the market, hopefully hey will be affordable and competitive in price.

We still count on conventional gasoline, diesel or alternative fuel engines for power. With that in mind we really don’t have to worry about hydrogen cars as much as plan on seeing what becomes out of it. Which compels me to mention that GotEngines.com is one of the full service engine suppliers who can handle all of your current engine replacement needs, call them @ 1-877-268-0664 and speak to a real live professional.