With today's rapidly changing vehicle market, many advanced vehicle technologies are being evaluated at varying levels of governments and private organizations. This paper is intended to provide insight into the evaluation of vehicle power train technology and a brief state of the industry regarding new vehicle technology and alternative fuels. The paper proposes that public policymakers focus on metrics such as well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions and criteria air pollutants. Such a focus makes hydrogen vehicle technology much more attractive. The integration of a plug-in hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is described as it is found to be a promising vehicle architecture for the long-term automotive power train. Detailed mechanical and electrical integration is described in the paper. An innovative control system that was used on this vehicle and the control system is described. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.