Hydrogen onboard storage presents the major technological challenge in the adoption of hydrogen as a transportation fuel. The storage system needs to be light in weight, compact in volume, safe in operation, low in fuel cost, fast and user friendly in its refilling operations. None of the current storage technologies can meet all these requirements. To date, compressed hydrogen at 5000 psig has been used in most hydrogen demonstration vehicles, while it is generally believed that solid hydrogen storage holds the key to the long-term solution. In this paper, we will first give an overview of the current status of solid hydrogen storage for both onboard vehicle and refueling applications. Near term bridging technologies such as a hydrogen ICE vehicle powered by the advanced metal hydride technology will be presented and discussed. Materials challenges toward a hydrogen based economy will be addressed.