Gas-free cars to hit the road — for a while

LOS ANGELES — It's a dream come true: cars that don't need gasoline. But first, researchers and selected companies will get the keys.

Honda, Ford and General Motors this week announced plans at the Los Angeles Auto Show to put alternative-fuel-technology vehicles on the road in California in coming months. A few drivers will even get to park them in their garages.

Honda and GM's Chevrolet have developed hydrogen fuel-cell-powered cars for limited test use, while Ford is producing a plug-in hybrid vehicle. And although none is being manufactured in large quantities — mass production is still years away — the limited trials will be a tantalizing taste of what's likely to come.

The FCX Clarity is what Honda calls a "production" version of a hydrogen fuel-cell car it first exhibited two years ago. It promises zero emissions and luxury features such as heated seats and Bluetooth connectivity while getting about the equivalent of 68 miles per gallon.

Honda says it will lease the four-door sedans to a limited number of Californians in Irvine, Santa Monica and Torrance by next summer. (Those areas are being targeted because they're near hydrogen-refueling centers.) The three-year lease — the first time fuel-cell cars will have been made commercially available anywhere — will be $600 a month, or about the cost of a BMW 5 Series, Honda executives said.

Motorists will be able to keep the cars at home and drive them as they please while being mindful that the fuel tank allows them to go 270 miles between fill-ups.

The Japanese automaker won't say how much each FCX Clarity costs to make but admits the lease comes nowhere near to covering its expenses. Hydrogen fuel-cell cars, which convert hydrogen into electricity used to power a motor, can cost $1 million or more each to make.

"At the end of the lease, we definitely want them back," said Dan Bonawitz, vice president of corporate planning and logistics for Honda.

GM, meanwhile, says it will distribute 100 hydrogen fuel-cell-powered Chevrolet Equinox crossovers over the next half year, including 10 that it will lend to Walt Disney Co.

"These will give up a good practical test of where these cars belong," said GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, adding that other Equinoxes will end up in "the hands of the public" and celebrities.

Honda and GM are focusing on Southern California because of its relative abundance of hydrogen fuel stations.

In California, Bonawitz said, hydrogen per kilogram, the unit used for the fuel, costs $4 to $10. A tank could cost $16 to $40 to fill.

Skeptics point out that neither plug-in hybrids nor fuel-cell vehicles are anywhere near ready for prime time, and are perhaps a decade or more away from true commercialization.

The tests by Honda, Ford and GM are "a demonstration on the part of the car makers that they're green," said David Healy, an analyst at Burnham Securities. "Or at least that they look like they're green."