21 Nov 06
I've not yet seen the new Bond movie, but already lament the fact that, for only the second time in the history of the world's least secret agent, it contains no character called Q or even R. How can 007 survive without someone to patronise him, shoot him withering glances and explain all that futuristic technology? Bond without Q is a barbecue without sausages - simply unthinkable.
And I'd love to see Q's take on this Honda FCX, a car so futuristic in outlook and content it makes an Aston Martin DBS look like a London to Brighton competitor. But as Major Boothroyd can't explain it to us, I'm going to try instead, as a considerably poorer substitute. So pay attention 007s, what follows really, really matters.
You will have heard of fuel cell cars. You may know they function by reacting hydrogen with oxygen, producing electricity that can power a car (or, for that matter, a house or pretty much anything else you choose). And the reason most of the world's major car manufacturers are so excited by them? As we all learned at school, when you chemically combine hydrogen and oxygen, what you get is pure water and nothing else. A bit better for the planet, you will agree, than the oxides of carbon and nitrogen and all the other nasties that currently cascade out of even the cleanest conventional exhaust pipes.
So why are we not all pootling our saintly way about the place in these fuel cell cars? It goes something like this: the energy companies won't provide the hydrogen refuelling infrastructure necessary to support a fuel cell future without the cars to use them; meanwhile, the car manufacturers won't make and sell fuel cell cars if there's nowhere for their customers to fill them up. It may sound simplistic and even stupid, but that, if you'll forgive the pun, is the essence of it.
