The hydrogen fuel cell car has been called everything from a pipe dream to the savior of the American economy.

After driving one for a year, Jon Spallino calls it something much simpler. “It’s a good car,” he said.

Spallino is the Redondo Beach resident who was chosen by Honda Motor Co. to become the first American motorist to make a hydrogen-powered hatchback the primary means of transportation for him and his family.

He paid Honda $500 a month for the lease as part of the pilot program last June, and despite its limitations and his relatively low expectations has been pleasantly surprised by its performance.

“I just wanted it to drive like a regular car,” he said of the vehicle that is seen by some as part of the solution to America’s oil addiction. “And surprisingly, that’s exactly what it did.”

The metallic blue FCX the futuristic-sounding name that Honda has dubbed it is tucked away on a quiet block in Redondo Beach. And if not for the 3-inch tall black lettering on both sides and the rear of the car “Honda Fuel Cell Power” it would look like a lot of other compacts, if a bit smaller.

Of course, it’s not similar. The car reportedly cost Honda $1 million to build and there are only about 40 in existence worldwide, with most of the rest being operated by fleets.

The car, which looks like a cross between a Civic and golf cart, has racked up more than 8,000 miles over the past year on trips to the grocery store, soccer practice and other places about town.

At least once a week, it also logs the 80-mile round trip to Spallino’s Irvine office where he is a chief financial officer at Southland Industries, an engineering and construction company.

“My wife drives it every day to drop the kids off at school, take them to soccer practice, to the store, wherever,” Spallino said. “I guess that’s how much I trust it.”

Limited range


As much as he appreciates it, however, Spallino’s hydrogen Honda has some drawbacks and they are the same ones that have thus far prevented its widespread acceptance: It costs too much, it doesn’t go far enough on a tank of fuel and there’s practically nowhere to get the fuel.

There are currently 15 hydrogen-refueling stations operational in the state with another 17 scheduled to come online in the next year, according to the Web site of the California Fuel Cell Partnership, an industry trade group.

Indeed, Spallino has a choice of just three area hydrogen stations, and generally uses one at nearby Los Angeles International Airport. Honda picks up the tab for the gas, which is compressed to 5,000 pounds per square inch and stored in two carbon fiber tanks between the rear wheels that Honda insists make the car as safe as a standard gasoline-powered vehicle.

But with so few stations, range is a big issue. The FCX’s tank holds about 5 kilograms of hydrogen, enough to get the car only about 150 to 190 miles. Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a plan to build 150 to 200 hydrogen refueling stations by 2010. But his so-called “Hydrogen Highway,” which would cost up to $200 million, has only drawn partial funding.

Even if California were to get on the hydrogen bandwagon, the lack of refueling infrastructure in other states would also prevent any lengthy trips

“Americans, and Californians specifically, expect a lot out of their cars,” acknowledges Chris White, a spokeswoman for the partnership. “If we can get close to 500 miles out of one fill up and 150,000 miles out of one tank then we feel customers will buy them.”

For now, though, cost and technical complexity pose an even greater challenge to gain greater acceptance for fuel cell cars. Honda hopes to one day sell a hydrogen fuel cell car for $40,000 to $60,000, but that seems far off.

More than half the $1 million it cost to produce Spallino’s car was spent on the fuel cells and that’s for a car that Spallino notes has a trunk so small that he can’t even fit his set of golf clubs in it.

“These are the little things that make the car somewhat inconvenient,” he said.

And then there is the issue of the fuel itself.

Environmentalists dream of the day when highly efficient solar cells will be able to convert water directly into hydrogen, but for now that is still a dream.

A common method to produce it now is through “reforming gasoline.” So the fact remains it takes more energy to produce hydrogen than gasoline.