In 1997, Toyota caught its competitors by surprise with the revolutionary Prius, the first commercially successful gasoline-electric hybrid car. Now it is trying to do the same with a technology that seems straight out of science fiction.

Toyota Motor Corp. will next year launch a hydrogen-powered car in the United States, Japan and Europe. For now, people at Toyota are calling it the 2015 FC car, for fuel cell.

Fuel cell cars use a "stack" of cells that electrochemically combine hydrogen with oxygen to generate electricity that helps propel the car. Their only emission, bar heat, is water vapor. They can run five times longer than battery-powered electric cars and it takes just minutes to fill the tank with hydrogen — far quicker than even the most rapid charger can recharge an electric car.