Hydrogen-powered Audi to appear in 2014

* Hydrogen Audi to be revealed next year * Likely to be A7 currently in testing * Follows development of e-tron and g-tron...

Hydrogen-powered Audi to appear in 2014

An Audi that runs on hydrogen will be revealed next year, research and development chief Dr Ulrich Hackenberg has said.

'There are already cars with fuel cell technology testing in the field. You will see such cars next year,' he said.

Dr Hackenberg was most likely referring to Audi A7 hydrogen prototypes, which were expected to begin testing last month. The company revealed a Q5 with a fuel cell hybrid system several years ago, but this is the first time that an Audi will be shown that's powered solely by hydrogen.

There is, however, no suggestion that the company will aim to put the technology into production cars in the near future. Dr Hackenberg said: 'At the moment we don't have the fuel cell infrastructure, so pure electric drive in this way is limited.'

The development of a fuel cell powertrain follows Audi's investment in petrol-electric hybrid (e-tron) and natural gas power (g-tron) technologies.

The plug-in hybrid Audi Sport Quattro concept was revealed at the Frankfurt motor show earlier this week.