Honda: Fuel-cell cars on market by 2018

For years, hydrogen fuel-cell technology has been viewed as the ideal replacement for the gasoline combustion engine in automobiles. While most industry observers agree some form of hydrogen power (fuel-cell or combustion) will eventually replace gasoline, that timetable has been less than clear. Several hurdles remain, including making the technology affordable, and more importantly having an infrastructure to support it.

Honda feels things will start to fall into place by 2018. That's when the company expects to sell fuel-cell vehicles in the general market, according to Kyodo News.

"In 2018, I believe the development (of a fuel-cell car) will have been very advanced," Honda President Takeo Fukui told the news agency. "It will become a real possibility to a large degree," he said. Fukui said Honda is confident it could sell a good number of vehicles if they were priced no more than $84,000.