SAIC Motor Corp., China’s biggest vehicle maker, is accelerating a push into alternative energy, targeting a lead in hydrogen cars as it moves beyond gasoline and electric engines.

SAIC Motor plans to gain 10 percent of China’s hydrogen vehicle market by 2025 as global automakers step up development of clean energy cars to help protect the environment. The company will add at least 10 hydrogen models over the next five years, it said in a statement yesterday.

Xinhua quoted Wang Xiaoqiu, president of SAIC Motor, as saying yesterday that the firm is expected to produce and sell 10,000 fuel cell cars and set up a special team to oversee research and development and operation of its fuel cell project.

SAIC Motor started its fuel cell vehicle project in 2001 and has invested more than 3 billion yuan (US$439 million) on research and development. It has obtained 511 patents in the fuel cell sector, according to the Xinhua report.

The nascent hydrogen vehicle market globally is dominated by companies such as Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. and Canada’s Ballard Power Systems Inc.

China’s government is putting its policy might behind the technology — just as it has done with electric-battery vehicles — encouraging more companies to participate.

The government wants 1 million fuel-cell vehicles on the roads in a decade and is spending hundreds of millions of yuan to subsidize purchases and spur research and development. And, as seen with battery-powered cars, a slew of startups and established companies are trying to capitalize on the policies.

SAIC Motor makes cars with partners including Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co. in China. (SD-Agencies)