????幾家汽車制造商竟然因為一個化學元素走到一起，確實有趣。汽車制造商紛紛結盟，生產更有成本優勢的汽車，而這種汽車的燃料便是化學周期表最左上角的一種化學元素——氫。

????1月24日，寶馬（BMW）與豐田（Toyota）宣布，至2020年，兩家公司將聯合生產一款氫燃料電池汽車。而最近，戴姆勒（Daimler）、福特（Ford）和日產汽車（Nissan）也于1月28日共同宣布結盟，四家公司將在2017年之前推出一款氫燃料電池汽車。

????這些公司之前都是激烈的競爭對手，如今卻紛紛結盟。因為這或許是他們最好的選擇。

????這已經不是汽車公司之間的首次聯合。早在2010年，豐田便將其普銳斯汽車（Prius）使用的動力傳動系統授權給馬自達公司（Mazda），后者一直希望在自己生產的混合動力汽車中使用豐田的技術。

????而且，這次各廠商聯合開發的燃料電池汽車也并不是什么新鮮事物。早在1839年，威廉姆?格羅夫就發明了燃料電池。當時，許多汽車使用的都是我們今天所說的替代燃料：電力、花生油，甚至蒸汽。只是最終內燃發動機獲得了成功。不過，大型汽車廠商聯合推出面向大眾市場且價格可行的燃料電池汽車，尚屬首次。如今市場已經可以接受這類車型，但廠商單獨開發的意義并不大。

????一方面，氫燃料驅動汽車的銷售成本要高于生產成本。整個燃料基礎設施（即消費者如何獲得燃氣供應）必須進行改變，鑒于目前整個汽車燃料供應系統均圍繞汽油建成，這個任務非常艱巨。企業社會責任委員會（BSR）顧問服務高級副總裁埃里克?奧爾森說：如果以這種方式沖擊市場，“面臨最大的挑戰往往不是技術問題。條件、基礎設施、政策和市場是否做好準備，往往與技術問題密切可分。”

????如果各大廠商聯合推進基礎設施的準備工作，就可以加快新一代汽車的上市進程。此外，汽車廠商聯合起來就可在相關規定出臺之前，達成自己的標準。密歇根大學羅斯商學院（ University of Michigan's Ross School of Business）土木工程與環境工程學教授彼得?阿德里亞恩斯認為，比起各自為戰，多家廠商聯合起來更容易解決氫燃料電池如何與汽車其他部分相互作用的問題。

????阿德里亞恩斯說：“這是電動汽車開發帶來的教訓之一。”雖然豐田汽車曾授權其他公司使用普銳斯混合動力車的發動機，但其他公司試圖將專有電動汽車技術轉變成競爭優勢時，便會與這一授權產生沖突。

????It's lovely how a single element can bring several car companies together. Automakers are bonding to make cost-competitive vehicles that run on hydrogen, the upper-leftmost element on the periodic table.

????On January 24, BMW and Toyota (TM) announced that they would collaborate to release a hydrogen fuel cell-powered car by 2020. More recently, Daimler, Ford (F), and Nissan one-upped the pair, announcing on January 28 that, together, they would bring a hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle to market by 2017.

????These companies are fierce competitors, and yet, they are joining forces. It's probably the best choice they could make.

????This isn't the first time this has happened in the auto industry. In 2010, Toyota licensed the drivetrain used in its Prius to Mazda, which wanted to incorporate the technology in its own hybrid model.

????Nor will the vehicles that come out of this cooperation be the first ones to run on fuel cells. The fuel cell was developed before the turn of the last century, in 1839 by Sir William Grove. Around that time, a host of cars ran on what we would now consider alternative fuels: electricity, peanut oil, and even steam. The internal combustion engine won out.

????Nevertheless, this is the first time that big auto companies are teaming up to bring affordable, fuel cell-powered cars to a mass market that's ready for such products, and it doesn't make much sense to do it alone.

????For one, selling cars that run off of hydrogen will take much more than just making them. The entire fuel infrastructure (how gas gets to consumers) will have to change, which is no simple task, given the fact that the entire car fuel delivery system is built around gasoline. When rocking the market this way, "It turns out the technology is often not the biggest challenge," says Eric Olson, senior vice president of advisory services at BSR. "Closely intertwined with the technology is having the conditions, the infrastructure, the policy, and the market preparedness."

????Companies can bring a new generation of cars to market more quickly if they collaborate on priming the infrastructure. They can also stay ahead of regulation by teaming up and agreeing on standards themselves. In this case, multiple heads are probably better than one to figure out how exactly the hydrogen fuel cell will interact with the rest of the car, says Peter Adriaens, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of business.

????"That's one of the lessons learned from electric vehicle development," Adriaens says. Toyota may have licensed the guts of the hybrid Prius out to other companies, but other car companies have clashed as they tried to use proprietary EV technology to gain a competitive edge.