Have to hand it to Honda — the company promised its zero-emissions vehicle, the FCX Clarity, would be available this summer, and they technically beat that deadline by about a week. The future-y sedan, which is powered by hydrogen fuel cells, is now available in limited quantities (only a few dozen this year, which were quickly snapped up by SoCal celebs) in Southern California and costs $600 a month to lease. Buying it outright isn't an option, apparently.
That's just as well, since there are hydrogen fuel stations in only three cities in California right now. Fuel-cell technology is clearly still in the early part of the early-adopter phase, but with Honda making its move maybe we'll start to see more of them. However, Honda's production schedule of 200 units over the next three years is fairly unambitious (surely the hydrogen fuel stations will be able to handle more than that). And it would be nice if they started mixing up the design of these things — this fuel-cell car design from GM looks pretty much cribbed from the FCX.
FCX Clarity, via Yahoo Green
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By Karpet at 7:48 PM ON 06/16/08
Lame. Why didn't they stuff the tech into a s-2000 and give it some class? The only ones lining up for this are the tree hugging celebrities so why even try to make it a family sedan. Oh that's right, its hip to make babies now too. Maybe they should bake a zero emmissions car that runs on babies! It would be a big hit in China! ....Too Much? If you want to reduce your carbon footprint then listen to Leno, buy a Model T.
By SpeedBlue47 at 9:44 PM ON 06/16/08
I wanted to correct you on the title. A hydrogen fueled vehicle is not zero-emission. It is only zero-emission at the tail pipe, the hydrogen has to be sequestered somehow. And that somehow might be from fossil fuels or from electrolysis, which are at best energy neutral conversion methods. California is one of the few states where the fuel mix in the power grid would even allow this to on net be a lower than average emission vehicle. If electrolysis efficiency could be increased substantially, this would lower CO2 in states and countries with power generation networks that rely on nuclear or renewable energy sources, like California, Japan, and France.
In the short term, highly efficient ICE-electric serial hybrids are probably the best low emission vehicle choice(with a plug-in option available). Serial Hybrids also do not rely on the energy intensive mining of platinum.
By EnOne at 8:32 AM ON 06/17/08
This works as long as you live in a warm environment where you never have to worry about freezing temperatures. So this is a solution for people who live in the tropics and never feel the need to drive up to the mountains. The rest of us have to worry about ice so a different solution is needed.
By PeterD at 4:24 PM ON 06/17/08
The Clarity (assuming it keeps that name) isn't going into mass production for a few more years. What are available now are still essentially prototypes for extended road testing. It makes sense that they wouldn't be producing too many yet, since its not actually 'in production'.
I'm not sure why low temperatures would be a problem -- if the ambient temperature where you live can freeze hydrogen you've got bigger problems than vehicle emissions . . .
By katsalos at 12:44 PM ON 06/18/08
Why they make them so ugly?