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In a bold move that quickly answers the chicken or egg question of a hydrogen future, Honda has decided to place the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell car into production next year.

Called the FCX, the vehicle will initially be available in the United States and Japan for a retail price around $100,000. The car will travel an estimated 270 miles at speeds of up to 100mph and will produce only water vapor from its exhaust. It’s an amazing thing to see such a vehicle actually be offered for sale, but the price and scarcity of hydrogen filling stations will mean sightings and practical use will be nil. Honda is planning on introducing a “Home Energy Station” to deal with the latter. Still currently in development, the unit might be hooked up to a person’s domestic gas supply to produce hot water and electricity for the house as well as hydrogen for the car.

Honda’s president and chief executive, Takeo Fukui, shed some light on the company’s decision to push the car into production saying, “When the car was invented, countries weren’t full of petrol stations,” said Fukui in response to questions about the lack of infrastructure. “When the demand is there it [the hydrogen economy] will happen.”

Fukui also had some words for Toyota’s upcoming Prius plug-in models. “Carrying a [mains rechargeable] battery [as well as an engine] is dead weight,” said Fukui, adding that Toyota’s enthusiasm for plug-ins was fuelled by the desire to be able to use more mains electricity produced by US-sourced coal rather than imported oil. “It is highly political,” said Fukui, “but, technically speaking it’s nonsense.”

Interesting. So I guess we can expect Honda to skip plug-in technology completely so as not to become part of some political conspiracy? I think Fukui should be careful not to jump ahead five spaces and forget the allure of a car that’s both affordable and gets even higher mileage than today’s standard hybrids. I’m not denying the beauty of hydrogen — but it’s definitely not a perfect solution and has a long road to travel to practicality.