Electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp to deliver two electric vehicles to the world's largest automaker by the end of the month.

"Since our announcement in May, Toyota and Tesla engineering teams have made a lot of progress in a short amount of time and it is exciting to start seeing some initial results," Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel said in a statement.

"The prototypes will combine Toyota vehicles with Tesla electric powertrains."

The Roadster is powered by more than 6,800 ordinary laptop battery cells and can accelerate to 60 miles per hour from a standing stop in less than four seconds, faster than all but a handful of luxury sports cars.

Last week, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said that Toyota was interested in experimenting with Tesla's approach to using lithium-ion battery cells developed for the electronics industry as a potential alternative to developing batteries tailor-made for its own vehicles.

Toyota is also continuing work on a battery-powered small car it hopes to launch in 2012. Toyota showed off a prototype based on its IQ mini-car in 2009.

Toyota is amongst several manufacturers, including Ford, and Hyundai, working on fuel cell cars too. But this week the UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Association (UK HFCA) called for more hydrogen filling stations to be rolled out to meet the demand expected after 2015 when these cars are on the road.

Fuel cells convert hydrogen into electricity, with heat and water being the only by-products.

UK HFCA chairman Dennis Hayter said fuel cell cars only take minutes to refill with a range of around 250 miles range, whereas plug-in electric vehicles take hours to recharge with a range of around 100 miles.

Existing petrol filling stations could be converted, with hydrogen companies possibly leasing some of the pumps, while current hydrogen production capacity is seen as adequate for the next decade.

"You may find there's a deal to be made between the hydrogen gas and petroleum companies. Things are happening in the background and gradually a network is starting to appear," Hayter said.