A discontinuous transformation now underway in automotive technology may accelerate the transition to transportation powered by solar hydrogen. Even using internal-combustion engines, ultralight, ultraslippery, advanced-composite, hybrid-electric hypercars can be severalfold lighter and lower-drag than present steel cars; many times more efficient; and over two orders of magnitude cleaner; yet equally safe, sporty, comfortable, durable, beautiful and (probably) affordable. The required design integration is technically and culturally difficult. Yet important manufacturing advantages permit a free-market commercialization strategy impelled not by government mandates or subsidies but by manufacturers' quest for competitive advantage and customers' desire for superior cars.Proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are promising even for heavy and high-drag hybrid cars because they can convert hydrogen into traction severalfold more efficiently than today's drivelines convert gasoline. But hypercars would need significantly fewer kilowatts of power, and could therefore adopt PEMFCs earlier--before their specific cost, mass, and volume mature. The resulting high production volumes could quickly cut PEMFCs' costs enough to displace a significant portion of thermal power stations, either in stationary applications or by plugging in parked hypercars. This potential break-though for PEMFCs is one new stimuli to early emergence both of distributed electric utilities and of hydrogen fuel as a major output of renewable energy sources.