THE first hydrogen fuelled vehicle to go on general sale in Britain will cost from £53,105 as Hyundai releases its zero emission ix35 SUV onto the open market.

The car, which has been under development since 1998, uses a fuel cell to generate electricity and has a theoretical range of almost 370 miles.

Unlike other electric vehicles, most of which cannot travel more than 100 miles without recharging, the ix35 does not need to be hooked up to the mains.

Instead, it generates its own electricity on the move and all that comes out of the exhaust is water.

As such it is tax free and exempt from congestion charges but the downside is the vehicle is left hand drive and a there is a lack of filling stations.

The ix35 is the fourth generation of Hyundai fuel cell models and the vehicle has been undergoing trials in London for the past three years.

The Korean car maker has teamed up with HyFive - a European project to introduce 110 hydrogen fuelled vehicles across the Continent - to bring the ix35 fuel cell car to market in the UK.

HyFive is subsidising the sale of each hydrogen Hyundai to the tune of almost £15,000 with the fuel cell car having an on-the-road price of £67,985 - more than twice as expensive as the conventional 2.0-litre diesel ix35 range topper.

Realistically, the fuel cell car is aimed at the London market where there will be five hydrogen filling stations open to the public by the end of the year.

Outside the south east of England refueling points are few and far between although there is one at the Honda factory in Swindon where the Japanese manufacturer has been operating its FCX hydrogen car - another vehicle in the HyFive scheme which also involves BMW, Mercedes and Toyota.

The ix35 is the world's first mass produced fuel cell electric vehicle and has been sold through central Hyundai channels to selected trial partners since 2013.

It is already on the road in 15 countries around the world, including 11 in Europe, where it is seen as a trailblazer for ultra-low emission motoring.

On the road the fuel cell vehicle is surprisingly conventional to drive and can accelerate briskly through its automatic gearbox. Top speed is just shy of 100mph and 0 to 60 takes 12.5 seconds which is little different to a conventional ix35.

Apart from the instrumentation - which is as high tech as the power system - it feels utterly normal to drive, albeit very quiet with no noise from the motor.

At low speeds the car generates artificial noise as a road safety measure to alert pedestrians but that is not audible from inside the vehicle.

The car uses liquid hydrogen which is stored in two high strength tanks beneath the boot floor and can be refueled in less than three minutes. Fuel capacity is measured by weight rather than gallons and the ix35 carries 5.64kg of hydrogen resulting in a range of 369 miles.

Be gentle and it is possible to exceed that and on our brief drive in the ix35 we travelled 22 miles and reduced the range by 17 miles according to the onboard trip computer.

At the moment the cost of refueling is about the same as filling up a diesel and although the price of hydrogen could fall as demand grows it makes the fuel cell car relatively expensive to run in terms of pence per mile.

The fuel cell vehicle works by generating electricity which is stored in a lithium-ion battery and drives an electric motor under the bonnet.

Such technology may be cutting edge in cars but the fuel cell principle has been around for more than 150 years and was used commercially by NASA to provide power for its space programme, including the Apollo lunar landings.

In the ix35 the motor drives the front wheels and space inside is not compromised by the technology under the body, with the exception of the boot which is marginally smaller because of the fuel tank below.

Creature comforts are the same as on a regular ix35 and the fuel cell vehicle includes air conditioning, a full set of airbags and a sat nav system that has every hydrogen filling station mapped in.

On our drive the fuel cell car showed considerable potential and the technology is much more user-friendly than that found in plug-in vehicles.

Hyundai has already improved the efficiency of the fuel cell system considerably - the current car has twice the range of the previous version - and as the infrastructure grows to support such vehicles hydrogen becomes an increasingly realistic and environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuel.