With the slogan 28 cities, 2 countries nine days a hydrogen vehicle tour will kick off in the West Coast next week.

The Hydrogen Road Tour 2009 organized by fuel cell vehicles advocates is set to travel 1,700 miles from Chula Vista, California to Vancouver. The tour will highlight the communities where fuel cells and hydrogen stations are entering early commercial markets.

Fuel cell technology is on the verge of becoming a practical alternative to burning gasoline, said Mary D. Nichols, the Chairman of California's Air Resources Board in a statement. This year's road tour demonstrates how far the industry has come and how near we are to putting these cars in the public's hands.

Some of the models to travel in the tour include the Daimler F-Cell, Chevy Equinox FCV, Honda FCX Clarity, Hyundai Tucson FCEV, Kia Borrego FCEV, Nissan X-Trail, Toyota FCHV-adv and Volkswagen's Tiguan HyMotion and Caddy Maxi, according to the Autogreenblog.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Energy Department announced it was taking away $100 million a year of funding for the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles program and instead would focus on alternative fuel programs that will be quicker to develop and be deployed across the nation.

The probability of deploying hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the next 10 to 20 years is low, Energy Department spokesman Tom Welch said in an interview with Automotive News on May 11.

California Energy