New Zealand imports its vehicle fleet and essentially all transportation fuel. With introduction of fuel-cell vehicles, New Zealand can become self-sufficient in hydrogen fuel. A study undertaken by the Sustainable Energy Initiatives program at UNITEC evaluates the economic and environmental factors of fossil and non-fossil energy sources for production of hydrogen. It examines the transition for hydrogen fuel from on-board production from hydrocarbons to large-scale centralized electrolytic production. The paper extrapolates historic data on population, vehicle transport, and electric energy and examines the basis for introducing hydrogen fuel into the national economy in the 2010-2050 period. (C) 2002 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.