Germany will get a network of hydrogen fuel pumps from 2016.

Shell will install them to boost the growth of the low-carbon alternative transport fuel.

The company, which opened the first hydrogen fuel station in the country in 2011, expects them to be available at around 400 locations across the country by 2023.

The pumps at these sites will refuel hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) in a few minutes, according to the company.

The cost of charging a hydrogen FCEV is comparable to filling a car with gasoline or diesel and they can travel similar distances to vehicles with conventional combustion engines, it added.

Oliver Bishop, General Manager of Hydrogen at Shell said: “Hydrogen-fuelled electric vehicles could play a key part in a lowcarbon, low-emission future. It will take technical innovation and bold policies to transform the global energy system into a progressively cleaner, less carbon-intensive one.”

Around 12 hydrogen-powered cars are to be rolled out in London by the end of the year.