WASHINGTON - Car maker Toyota, which is due to commercially launch its hydrogen fuel cell vehicle Mirai (which means future in Japanese)later this year, Tuesday announced plans to share its portfolio of over 5,000 patents with rival companies in a bid to drive development of similar cars.

One of the first hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to be sold commercially, Mirai was Tuesday showcased by Toytoa at the car technology show in Las Vegas.

Toyota is one of a record number of car makers attending CES to unveil new models or connected-car strategies.

"When good ideas are shared, great things can happen," said Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations at Toyota, in a statement.

The announcement was made soon after Toyota unveiled its hydrogen powered Mirai, which will be available for sale in Europe and the US towards yearend. It went on sale in Japan last month.

Eyeing the launch of first generation of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles over the next five years, Carter stressed that "unconventional collaboration" among car makers, governments, power firms and researchers would bring forth better results.

Toyota hopes that availability of tested and patented free of charge technologies would encourage and speed up production of more hydrogen fuel cars.

"We believe that a hydrogen-based society is within reach, but we can't build it on our own. So we're sharing our patents, to encourage other car companies and energy companies who believe in clean, alternative energy to help bring hydrogen to the world," stated Toyota in a statement.

" Every innovation marks a turning point in the hydrogen movement and a step towards a more sustainable future."

The patent portfolio being offered for sharing by Toyota covers fuel cell stacks, high-pressure hydrogen tanks, software control systems and the industrial processes involved in generating and supplying the gas.

While the infrastructure to support electric cars is slowly starting to appear in many nations, re-fuelling stations for hydrogen powered cards are much harder to find.

By opening up its patents at the tech show, Toyota hopes to attract more players to enter the field and boost the number of places that fuel-cell powered cars can get refilling done.

Toyota's move follows that of Tesla motors which shared its patent portfolio in 2014.

A total of 10 car firms are attending CES in 2015 - more than ever before. Some, such as Audi and BMW, are showing off innovations that help drivers park, avoid crashes or which can take over behind the wheel when cars are on motorways or major roads.

Audi's self driven A7 which completed 550 miles from San Francisco to the tech show and Volkswagen's gesture-controlled in-car entertainment and information system was also on display.

Audi said the "piloted driving" system in the car is almost ready to put in its production models.

The presence of so many auto makers is seen as a response to the number of tech firms that are steadily aiming to get their innovations into cars or, like Google, produce their own autonomous vehicles.