According to Detroit Free Press, the U.S. Department of Energy has approved $6 million to be shared by Ford and the Los Alamos National Laboratory to accelerate development of hydrogen fuel cell technology. The announcement has been made by  U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell (12th District of Michigan). “Ford is helping lead the nation in the research and development of next-generation technologies that will make our cars cleaner, safer and more fuel efficient,” she said in a statement. “This will help accelerate American innovation in clean energy technologies, and keep Michigan and the U.S. at the forefront of developing the cars and trucks of the future.”

“We are pleased that the Department of Energy selected our project,” Ford said in a news release. “The grant will help further our research efforts to develop next-generation technologies for our vehicles.”

The Dearborn automaker will use the funds to develop a lower-cost production system for fuel cells, which today are too expensive to enable the few fuel cell cars on the market to be sold at competitive prices.