Honda FCX (2007) CAR review

And the cabin?

Like stepping into a very stylish future. The seats are trimmed in Honda’s (appropriately) pale green BioFabric, which is sun-and stain-resistant, produced in a sustainable manner and way cooler than leather. In front of you, a wide glass screen conceals the sat-nav and the main ‘powerball’ dial, which grows or shrinks to indicate your power output, and changes colour to show if you’re burning or regenerating energy. Mad-looking, but it works.

Verdict

We’re still a long way from a hydrogen economy, and further still from being able to mass-produce fuel cells affordably. Other technologies – battery electric in particular – might well establish themselves before fuel cells have a chance to. But Honda deserves credit for investing so heavily in an ‘out-there’ technology that might just save us, and for showing us that the future of driving might not be so grim after all. It has good reason to, of course; as the world’s largest maker of engines it needs to find something to replace them. If by 2020 it’s churning these things out instead, it won’t be a tragedy.