At the recent opening of a new hydrogen filling station in Taylor, Michigan, Ford gave attendees the chance to get a brief drive in a hydrogen fuel cell powered Ford Focus. At the same event fuel cell programs chief engineer Greg Frenette agreed to let AutoBlogGreen have a longer evaluation with one of the prototype Focus FCVs. Recently, the call came that the car was ready, and a couple of hours later, a Ford engineer dropped off the car, worth about a million dollars, at my office. After a brief review of the operating procedures for starting and shutting down the car, the Focus was ready for evaluation.

The test car and most of the other Focus FCVs were built-up from pre-2004 Focus sedans. The cars look largely stock from the outside, but there are differences, most notably in the front. The air intake on the FCV is much larger than the stock Focus indicating a need for increased cooling for the electric drive motor and the power electronics.

The story continues after the jump