The Future Is....Now.

We are now officially living in the future. Today Honda opened it's new production line for the Honda FCX, a car which runs on hydrogen and produces only water as a by-product. Now, it is possible to fill your tank with hydrogen instead of petrol. There have been hydrogen vehicles along similar lines in the past, and both Japan and California have hydrogen filling stations to cater for these But previously these have been bespoke vehicles from BMW or Honda, made to order and handbuilt. Today Honda have taken the step to mass-produce them.

There are teething troubles, of course. These vehicles are only available in California and Japan. But to say that they will not spread further due to a lack of hydrogen stations is like saying that no-one would buy a Model T because there were no petrol stations. If there is a public need, the system will change. I have little doubt that at some point in the future Mr Shell of Miss BP will be offering hydrogen at the pump, or maybe they'll be beaten to the market by Sir Caltex or Dame Liberty, but the day will come when I can buy a hydrogen car and run it quite comfortably. As with the demise of the horse and the livery stable, one day the 'oil burner' will be a thing of the past.

Perhaps I am just being naive. Maybe it is wishful-thinking-induced hubris, but I really would like the sense of hope I feel today to not be misplaced. I feel today like I imagine Gottlieb Daimler must have felt in the late 1890s, having successfully harnessed the internal combustion engine to a rolling chassis. I feel that the world of personal transportation has changed, and changed for the better.

Roll on the future: a future full of non-polluting, non-fossil-fuel using vehicles. A world in which petro-dollars are not financing a militant Islam, and a world without smog.

But still a world with Top Gear :o)