The automotive giant has built what it claims is the world’s first mass production car powered by hydrogen. The only emission from its exhaust is clean water, which Honda says is drinkable – so it has bottled it and created H2O, a car-fuelled water brand.

The company’s Australian team came up with the concept and the bottles are now being marketed to the public, with distribution plans to stock the drink inside fridges at Honda locations and dealerships to directly target drivers “to further the conversation about hydrogen fuel”.

According to Honda Australia’s general manager of communications & customer, Jason Miller, the H2O brand is “an engaging way” for the company to demonstrate its commitment to reducing its environmental footprint.

The FCX model (commonly referred to as Fuel Cell eXperimental) also hints at Honda’s next generation of zero emission fuel cell vehicles, which are expected to launch in the US and Japan in 2015, followed by Europe.

The move is the latest sustainability push from Honda – in 2012 it announced plans to develop a mass-production process to extract rare earth metals from used car parts.

The company has teamed up with Japan Metals & Chemicals Co. to recover the metals from nickel-metal hydride batteries collected from used hybrid vehicles at Honda dealers around the world.

Maxine Perella

Action inspires action. Stay ahead of the curve with sustainability and energy newsletters from edie

Subscribe