Kathmandu, April 14 -- A year-and-a-half after the Nepal Green Hydrogen Summit, Kathmandu University (KU) last week successfully tested a hydrogen fuel cell car for the first time in Nepal.

KU's Green Hydrogen Lab used 10kg of water and 45 units of electricity costing $5 to produce 1kg of hydrogen to give a Hyundai SUV a range of 100km. Using petrol to drive the same distance would cost Rs1,400 at the gas station.

At present, running an EV is even cheaper, because a battery-powered car needs Rs106 of electricity to go 100km.

The technology is not new-industries and factories have been using hydrogen for over 100 years to manufacture chemicals and fertilisers, refine oil, and process food, among others.

But earlier processes used fo...