LAS VEGAS — American Honda announced on February 3 the lease of two Honda FCX fuel cell vehicles to the city of Las Vegas. The announcement was made in a ceremony held with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar B. Goodman. The city of Las Vegas will lease the fuel cell vehicles for a period of two years at a cost of $500 per vehicle per month. The vehicles will operate on a regular daily basis as part of their normal fleet operations. The FCX fuel cell vehicles will be refueled at a city-owned and operated hydrogen station. The two Honda fuel cell vehicles are the only fuel cell powered vehicles in service in the state of Nevada, increasing Honda's total number of vehicles operating in the United States to 14. The Honda FCX is the only fuel cell vehicle to be certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB), and is the only fuel cell vehicle in regular daily operation with multiple customers in the U.S. and Japan. CARB has certified the FCX as a Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV). In addition, the Honda FCX is also the only fuel cell vehicle to appear in the 2003 and 2004 EPA Fuel Economy Guide. With the addition of the city of Las Vegas, Honda has a total of 14 FCX vehicles in regular daily use with six customers in three states, including the only fuel cell vehicle in daily use in a hot desert climate and in the sub-freezing temperatures of the Northeastern U.S. In 2004, the city of San Francisco leased two cars, joining the city of Los Angeles (five vehicles), the South Coast Air Quality Management District (two vehicles), city of Chula Vista (one vehicle) and the State of New York (two vehicles) as FCX customers. Additionally, the city of Los Angeles celebrated its two-year anniversary as Honda's first-ever fuel cell customer in the United States on December 2, 2004. Honda undertook fuel cell research in 1989 and has been road testing vehicles in the United States since 1999. Honda has also been a member of the California Fuel Cell Partnership based in Sacramento, Calif., since 1999.