Honda Motor Co. will work alone to develop fuel-cell cars but is open to the idea of joint research with General Motors Corp., President Takeo Fukui said in an interview Thursday.
"We are not counting on other automakers" to help develop the fuel-cell cars, Fukui said, denying a report in the Yomiuri Shimbun earlier in the day that Honda, GM and BMW had agreed to work together to develop hydrogen-powered vehicle technology so the cars would be more marketable.
The daily said the joint research by the three automakers is aimed at reducing the high cost of building the hydrogen-fed vehicles, believed to exceed 100 million yen per car.