One experimental clean-energy car runs on natural gas. Another uses ethanol distilled from corn. A third has a zero-emissions electric motor powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

These alternative vehicles were created not by a global automaker but by China's small but ambitious car companies, which displayed them Sunday alongside gasoline-powered sedans and sport utility vehicles at the start of the Shanghai Auto Show.

Chevrolet Volt concept vehicle at the Shanghai Auto show. [google.com]

At a time when they are still trying to establish themselves in international markets, Chinese automakers are already investing in such avant-garde research in a bid to win a foothold in the next generation of technology.

"This is the tide of the industry. If you don't go with the tide, the industry will pass you by," said Qin Lihong, a vice president of China's biggest domestic automaker, Chery Auto Co., in an interview ahead of the show's opening.

China's communist leaders are encouraging the development as part of efforts to cut pollution and rising dependence on imported oil and to make this country a creator of profitable technologies.