As part of "Project Driveway", General Motors (GM) will put more than 100 fuel-cell vehicles in the hands of customers before the end of the year.
The cars will be based on the Chevrolet Equinox SUV.
GM says they will initially go to celebrities, policymakers, the military and other "influentials", but the public can also sign up online.
The vehicles will be tested in the :-
- US
- Germany
- South Korea
- China
- Japan
Those countries have been chosen because they have refueling facilities in place.
People selected to take part in the trial will have to live within a reasonable distance of a hydrogen station. The hydrogen is fed into a fuel cell on board the vehicle to produce electricity, which powers an electric motor connected to the front wheels. The exhaust is water vapour, which is vented through slots in the rear bumper rather than a conventional exhaust pipe.
Industry experts told the BBC's Discovery programme that hydrogen would be just one of the propulsion, or "drive train", technologies used to make cars greener in the future.
"The car of the future will have a modular approach to [its] drive train," said Derek Charters from the British motor industry consultants Mira.
"The car will be able to be fitted with a number of power units. At the stage of buying the car, you will define your requirements by your lifestyle.
"You'll go into a dealership and tell them what you want to do, and they will then recommend what type of drive train to put in."
That might mean that if you do mostly city driving you would have a large electric motor and a big battery pack fitted. But if you do some urban work and some long-distance driving, you might opt for a hybrid, with a smaller electric motor coupled to a petrol engine.
