It had been rumored in Japan newspapers for weeks, but Nissan today finally confirmed it plans to introduce a fuel cell-based car in a few years.

The company announced plans to launch a next-generation fuel cell vehicle in the early 2010s in Japan and North America as part of its mid-term environmental strategy.

Nissan Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said at a Tokyo press conference outlining the company's "Nissan Green Program 2010" that it will introduce from fiscal year 2010 gasoline engine technologies that will enhance fuel economy and at the same time reduce carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to diesel engine levels.

The company aims to introduce a new fuel-cell vehicle using an improved fuel stack - the main part of such vehicles - developed in-house after 2010 that will offer performance on par with gasoline-power automobiles, Shiga said.

Fuel cell vehicles run on power produced when oxygen in the air combines with hydrogen stored in the fuel tank - producing only water vapor.

But for the mid-term future, Shiga said the company plans to focus on the internal combustion engine as the primary power source for its vehicles, and will concentrate on improving engine efficiency.

"To develop vehicles that are truly environmentally friendly, we need to make significant advances in internal combustion technology while working on electrical power sources in parallel," said Mitsuhiko Yamashita, Nissan's executive vice president for research and development in a statement.

Nissan will also unveil a 100-percent bioethanol fuel-ready model for the Brazilian market by 2009 and plans to introduce an electric vehicle starting in Japan during the early part of the next decade.

The company is playing catch-up with Honda, which has begun talking about putting a production version of its its space-age FCX fuel cell vehicle concept car into limited production in 2008.