So, I’m going to be moving into one of the Japanese car-makers. The question is which one. Many of their fundamentals are similar. The biggest discrepancy is simply Toyota’s market capitalization. I had no idea it was that large. But Honda might have a more diverse product line-up, being as they’re into motorcycles, boat engines and lawnmowers as well.

Honda (NYSE: HMC)

Market Capitalization	$60.7B
Revenue (FYR)	$113.2B
EPS	$3.12
P/E Ratio	10.7x
Shares Outstanding	1.8 B
Avg. Daily Share Volume (Last 10 Days)	1.6 M
Dividend Yield	2.40%

Honda’s got a much better “price,” i.e., share price than Toyota (which we know isn’t the best way to measure the “price” of a company’s stock, but still. It does indicate the amount of my own money that I must dispense with in order to buy the stock). And it’s PE suggests that it might be valued higher due to quicker growth or more projected growth than Toyota.

Toyota (NYSE: TM)

Market Capitalization	$142.5B
Revenue (FYR)	$247.9B
EPS	$10.19
P/E Ratio	8.9x
Shares Outstanding	1.6 B
Avg. Daily Share Volume (Last 10 Days)	725.2 K
Dividend Yield	3.13%

As you can see, Toyota’s got much more of the market than Honda. But Toyota doesn’t have as diverse a product line-up. They do specialize in some interesting-looking “personal mobility vehicles,” though. You can find these if you go to their site and look up under their “concept vehicles.”

As for “goodwill” and company intangibles, Toyota and Honda are also similar-feeling to me. Honda ranks a bit higher on reliability and trustworthiness and creativity, though. And, of course, the Honda Civic is the top-selling (and top-stolen) car in Canada, for what it’s worth.

The reason I’m getting into one of these companies (and maybe, probably? eventually both) is for foreign diversification; also because they’re truly global companies; and because I think they’re going to weather the oil-crushing, gas-guzzling auto-maker collapse that seems to be upon us with the demise of such companies as GM. Both Honda and Toyota are innovators. And if that Genepax company’s water-running car technology is ever picked up in Japan, you’d think it would be by either Honda or Toyota. What do you think? Do you agree that these two have lasting power?

I think I’m going to go with Honda first, because it looks as though it has more room to grow, and it’s more diversified. But I’d love to hear additional thoughts and perspectives. I won’t be buying much at first. I’ll be diversifying over time and adding at different levels.

Alot of attention over the last couple of days since Genepax’s press release has been given to how one can invest in their company and in their proprietary water energy system (WES). With WES, the car runs on water alone. Some kind of “battery” or “electrical generation machine” separates the hydrogen from the oxygen and uses electrons from the hydrogen to power the car. It’s not at all a perpetual motion machine, and they don’t claim it is. They claim two things only:

(1) it does not use fossil fuels
(2) it does not produce carbon emissions.

If they need a “battery” of some kind to do this, great! A friend of mine pointed out that the reason they’re taking it public in this way (as opposed to just privately getting financing) is so that the world will know they’ve done this. A big auto-maker like GM might otherwise have bought the technology up and buried it (GM did have a fully electrical car available already in the 80’s…).

So How Can You Invest in Genepax?

The short and quick answer is that you can’t. #1, they’re not a public company yet. So they’re not listed on any stock exchanges. They’re a private research and development (R+D) firm looking for more financing so they can mass-market their car. This means they have no shares for you to buy. Not individually or through ETFs.

#2 But you can invest in whomever will give them a production contract. This is why you should pay attention to the story and wait to find out what large corporation or venture capitalist steps in to finance the next stage of their production. It might be possible for you to then invest in that company. You can research who the candidates might be now. What firms have financed similar technologies in the past?

#3 It might also be a good time to invest in Honda and Toyota. You know they’re going to try to match this with a similar technology if they are not the ones buying this up. One difference between Honda’s FCX Clarity and Genepax’s water car, obviously, is that the Clarity does not run on water. The Clarity might still be a better bet if it doesn’t use up yet another precious resource as water is (although, to their credit, Genepax’s car is purported to be able to run even using rain and seawater. If that is the case, then they’ve really got it made.)

GM also has fuel-cell technology going on, but the Chevy fuel-cell won’t be available for another 6 years. It doesn’t look as nice as the Clarity, either. The Clarity will be available in California next month. That’s where I’d be putting my money. The question is whether the new viability of fuel-cells for the market will bring oil prices down (due to less demand)? Probably not. It’s going to be many years before the entire globe is using fuel-cell. The airline industry alone can gobble up the rest of the world’s oil no problem. Of course, Genepax has their eye on taking their own technology to the skies and seas as well.

“This is not a dream story anymore.”

So goes the proclamation from the new English version of the website for Genepax, an Osaka-based electricity generation company in Japan. Genepax has produced a small car - it looks like a Smart car - that runs solely on water. You pore the litre or more of water in and the car can run at 80 km/hour for about an hour. You can watch it driven in this Reuters video posted on Engadget.

The question now is, how long will this last? It seems too good to be true. It certainly works. But there must be problems in there somewhere. There’s probably a battery that runs the electrolysis process which pulls electrons out of the hydrogren once it’s been separated from water. But

Genepax says the whole process produces no carbon emissions and it uses no fossil fuels.

That’s exactly what the world needs. But will someone shut them down? We should stay on top of the Genepax story and see what happens. Look them up again in a month (by then they should have a full English website up, too, if things go as it seems they’re supposed to at this point).

Almost at the same time, Honda has unveiled their new fuel-cell car. Built on a new assembly line in Togichi, production on this car - the FCX Clarity - began on Monday, June 16, 2008. You will be able to buy one in the U.S. starting in July, 2008. This fuel-cell car also produces no carbon emissions and uses no fossil fuels.

Wow. We’ve gone from oil and gas price nightmare to having a choice between two fossil-fuel free cars in the same week? This confirms what I’ve been suspecting over the last week, too: there are dozens of designs just waiting to be unleashed once it looks as though no more money can be made in the gasoline market. Just when oil’s selling finally again at the price it should be, these auto-makers will finally unleash their gas-free models. It makes good business sense, after all.

So keep on top of Genepax and the FCX Clarity. Let’s see if we’ve got the real deal here or if there are snags and catches. Genepax’s car for sure looks like it will be too expensive for a while. And it doesn’t have a mass-manufacturer yet. Honda’s system is ready to go - if you live in Southern California, where they will begin selling it. Check it out here.