The star of Chula Vista's auto pool is a high-tech wonder that never needs gasoline. The 2005 Honda FCX runs on hydrogen, one of the most plentiful elements on earth.

Sounds like a dream. But finding city employees to pilot the vehicle has been a nightmare.

“It's been a challenge to keep people driving it,” said Jack Dickens, the city's fleet manager. “They are intimidated by the cost.”

Manufactured in small batches, these experimental cars are painstakingly engineered and stuffed with costly gizmos. This gives the little FCX a big price tag: $1 million.

“I try not to drive it just because of the price,” said Claire Gomez, a fiscal office specialist for the city. “I don't want to be the one to crash it.”

This reaction surprised Dickens.

Honda and the city hammered out an insurance policy to prevent post-fender-bender headaches. Moreover, by $1 million car standards, the FCX is leased to the city at a bargain rate: $500 a month.

“It's not like the city will be out a million dollars should someone crash it,” Dickens said. “The city's attorneys were happy with that.”

City employees, it seems, are less delighted. The way this blue two-door is shunned, you'd think it was hell on wheels.

When Honda delivered the car to Chula Vista on Nov. 10, 2004, the City Council attended the ceremony. After the festivities, Dickens thought Mayor Steve Padilla would drive off in the FCX. He didn't – and hasn't since.

Dickens offered to lend the car to another council member. Thanks, but no.

“That's just what I need,” the politician told Dickens. “The press to get ahold of me in an accident in a million-dollar car.”

These days, though, none of the 650 cars in the city's inventory is cheap to drive.

From police cruisers to Rec Department sedans, all burn gasoline. All except one.

Twenty months ago, Chula Vista followed Los Angeles and San Francisco, becoming the third California city to lease a pricey hydrogen-powered car. And taking part in the state-backed “Hydrogen Highway” program.

The South Bay city also opened a hydrogen refueling station, the only one in San Diego County. (A second has been approved for Camp Pendleton, and Scripps Ranch is in line for a third.)

The station, at the city's Maxwell Road garage, uses electricity to extract hydrogen from water. This gas is compressed and pumped into the FCX. The car's fuel cells mix hydrogen and oxygen, creating electricity.

An electric motor moves the car without emissions, except for a trickle of purified water.

This great potential, though, is tempered by hydrogen's formidable problems.

It costs energy to produce this energy; hydrogen-powered cars lack range – this FCX must be refueled every 160 miles; and California has a scant 23 refueling stations.

And then there's the Hindenburg. Scientists insist the true culprits for the 1937 disaster were static electricity and the airship's combustible frame but, in the popular mind, hydrogen still takes the rap.

These issues had been widely aired before Chula Vista embarked on this experiment. All experiments begin with problems; some end with solutions. “I think the time when fuel cells are common is not that far away,” Dickens said.

That day may come before city employees embrace their $1 million car.

“We try to get everyone to use it,” Dickens said, “but there's a certain reluctance.” Any city employee eligible to sign out a car from the pool can use the FCX, from interns up to the mayor. In fact, at least one intern was brave enough to take it for a spin.

Last year, the average sedan in the city's car pool traveled 6,300 miles. The FCX traveled 5,100 miles, but less than half of this distance was logged in Chula Vista.

Most of the miles were accumulated driving to and from Torrance, where Honda technicians conduct monthly inspections.

Delivering the car to Torrance, Steve Dorsey, the city garage's shop supervisor, said he liked the FCX's pep. Still, he cautiously kept his speed under 70 mph. “That gets you to Torrance with probably 15 to 20 miles range left,” he said.

Dorsey had more reasons to be cautious.

One million more reasons.

“I did think about that one or two times,” he admitted.