Hydrogen: the Future Car Today?
Honda Releases Their First Fuel Cell Vehicle
Honda has released the FCX Clarity, a fuel cell vehicle powered by hydrogen in three California markets.
“The zero-emission sedan of the future. A reality today.” This is how Honda bills their recently released FCX Clarity, a hydrogen-fueled, fuel cell-powered vehicle that may well prove the car we all look back on one day and see as some 21st Century equivalent to Ford’s Model T. The future may truly be starting now. The Honda FCX Clarity has completed production and is for sale in a limited Southern California market, and it is gaining positive reviews from automotive editors who have test-driven it. The Clarity is not another hybrid but an altogether new green technology.
Fuel Cell Technology
For those who are unfamiliar with fuel cells or the conversion of hydrogen to produce electricity, the Honda FCX website offers a basic primer, and many more developed sites devoted to fuel cell technology exist, including a comprehensive site such as the one run by Fuel Cells 2000. Essentially, the FCX does what all fuel cell prototype vehicles have done, use hydrogen (carried on board the vehicle, in this case in a compressed form) in a chemical reaction with oxygen (simply drawn out of the air) to create electricity. The fuel cells feed an electric motor that powers the car. The key benefit, beyond greatly improved efficiency over traditional combustion engines, is that the only byproduct of fuel cells is water vapor—hence the “clean technology” that could transform the automotive industry and one day remove automotive dependence on oil.
Fuel cells can sound like nearly perfect technology, so there must be a catch. The key stumbling block is the lack of infrastructure for purchasing hydrogen. This is why Honda has released the FCX Clarity in three California cities only—Torrance, Santa Monica, and Irvine—because of the limited number of service centers where hydrogen is available. With a 270 mile cruising range per tank, those who purchase this first limited run of the FCX need to keep the car within reach of these hydrogen fueling stations. The current lack of infrastructure severely limits the marketing and production of this alternative fuel vehicle, but that seems destined to change, certainly in the eyes of Honda engineers and executives. Honda envisions that one day there will be home fueling stations where people can produce hydrogen in their own garages by capturing hydrogen through electrolysis. In 2004, California governor Schwarzenegger signed an executive order to create a “hydrogen highway” that would accelerate retail availability of hydrogen.
Positive First Reviews
So while currently limited to purchase by a few choice Southern Californians (likely only 100 vehicles), many remain surprised to see a fuel cell vehicle in production this year, believing it still to be a technology of the future. Yet those who have driven the Clarity are favorable impressed. The car, which in styling resembles a Toyota Prius, seats four adults and includes all the creature comforts modern automobile owners expect and a dash layout that feels familiar. “Too pleasing and promising to be patient,” said James R. Healy for USA Today after test-driving the vehicle last fall. “Blackmail, bully, threaten or bribe the hydrogen establishment for more public stations.” The few individuals who may drive this first generation of future car will likely be leasing them for about $600 a month on a three year lease, pricey, but still peanuts when compared with the likely $300,000 per unit production cost. The true future may remain a ways off—longer if the infrastructure doesn’t happen—yet many find it remarkable that a major auto manufacturer has gone public with a hydrogen powered car in 2008.
