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The move to greener motoring and electric cars appear to have stalled while the economy is in the doldrums.
"There is virtually no market for them given the current economic situation," said Koji Endo, auto analyst at Credit Suisse.
"People don't even want to buy a conventional car. Why would they buy a more expensive one? Furthermore, with gasoline prices falling sharply, an incentive for cutting fuel costs has disappeared," Endo said.
Longer term, green cars may be necessary lineups for carmakers because of regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, he added.
"Green cars would be more sellable if the world economy recovers, which would lead to a surge in gasoline prices and generous government subsidies towards the purchase of green cars."
Japanese automakers have enjoyed brisk demand for their smaller, fuel efficient cars in recent years. The ailing Big Three US automakers - General Motors, Ford and
Chrysler - meanwhile, have faced criticism in Washington for being too slow to shift their focus from gas-guzzling SUVs.
But even Japanese automakers still have more work to do before fuel-cell or electric vehicles are completely environmentally friendly. While fuel cell or electric vehicles emit no carbon dioxide themselves, CO2 is produced when hydrogen or electricity is produced from fossil fuels.
Honda Motors has been conducting research into hydrogen generation from solar power since 2001, but only at an experimental level.
