During the initial stages of the drive cycle, hydrogen in the interstitial spaces of the storage bed is provided to the fuel cell for propulsion of the vehicle as well as being separately burned to bring the metal hydride bed to temperature. If the available hydrogen is insufficient to maintain the vehicle's drive cycle and bring the system to temperature, the vehicle will stop with an incomplete drive cycle. In cases where there is sufficient hydrogen to maintain the drive cycle due to adequate thermodynamics and kinetics, the drive cycle will go to completion. When all the available hydrogen in the metal hydride is spent, the total distance traveled and the on-board efficiency are calculated.