Posted on 11/14/2007 2:54:22 PM PST by Red Badger
At the Los Angeles Auto Show, Honda today unveiled the FCX Clarity, a production hydrogen fuel cell vehicle based on the FCX Concept.
Honda will lease the vehicle to customers in selected areas of Southern California beginning in summer 2008. The lease will be three years long, with a monthly cost of $600 per month, including service, maintenance, and collision insurance. Customers will be able to drop off their vehicles at a Honda dealership for service, and Honda will then transport the vehicles to a dedicated service facility. Honda declined to disclose the amount of FCX Clarity vehicles that will be leased, and said that they would be announcing that figure next year. 
The V-Flow stack for the FCX Clarity.
For the Clarity, Honda has replaced the ultra-capacitors used in the FCX Concept with a lithium-ion battery pack. The Clarity uses the same V-Flow fuel cell stack as the FCX Concept, and the stack can start at temperatures as low as -22° Farenheit.
The vertically-oriented stack achieves an output of 100 kW (versus 86 kW in the current Honda FC stack) with a 50% increase in output density by volume (67% by mass). Its compact size allows for a more spacious interior and more efficient packaging of other powertrain components.
Compared to the current-generation FCX, the FCX Clarity offers:
*
A 20% increase in fuel economy to the approximate equivalent of 68 mpgge (miles per gallon gasoline equivalent) combined fuel economy (about 2-3 times the fuel economy of a gasoline-powered car, and 1.5 times that of a gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle, of comparable size and performance); *
A 30% increase in vehicle range to 270 miles; *
A 25% improvement in power-to-weight ratio, in part from an approximate 400-pound reduction in the fuel cell powertrain weight, for superior performance and efficiency despite a substantial increase in overall vehicle size; *
A 45% reduction in the size of the fuel cell powertrain—nearly equivalent, in terms of volume, to a modern gas-electric hybrid powertrain; *
An advanced new lithium-ion battery pack that is 40 percent lighter and 50 percent smaller than the current-generation FCX’s ultra-capacitor; and *
A single 5,000-psi hydrogen storage tank with 10% additional hydrogen capacity than the previous model.
The fuel cell stack operates as the vehicle’s main power source. Additional energy captured through regenerative braking and deceleration is stored in the lithium-ion battery pack, and used to supplement power from the fuel cell, when needed.
Tetsuo Iwamura, American Honda president and CEO, stated that the Clarity “will be EPA-certified, with the miles-per-gallon equivalent displayed on the window sticker.”
Honda has launched a consumer website for the vehicle at www.fcx.honda.com.
ping!.....
Cool technology. Looks like an overturned turtle, though.
Kinda strange that Honda is taking the lead over Toyota on this. I thought their Chairman was kind of ragging on Hybrids as a cyclical fad a year or two ago.
I love my Honda Hybrid. I really hate these lease arrangements, though. They can take the car back without a purchase option, just like they did with their electrics a while back.
thanks, bfl
When they are as large as an American SUV with the same power, they will have something.
Is it a lease only option? You can’t buy to own?
Also where does one get their tank filled up with hydrogen?
Generally this vehicle will work from June through August in Fairbanks. Use in other months will be intermittent.
It seems that Honda is assuming all the risks inherent in a new technology, through the leases. It’s better to pay a flat amount, than assume an unknown amount of risk. Even if the vehicle worked perfectly, you’d be at risk for technological advances that could hammer the resale value. It’s likely that fuel cells will be more powerful, more efficient, more reliable, and cheaper in three years -- which would make older vehicles worth a lot less. Buy when the technology has matured a bit, and has a track record of reliability.
I was thinking the same thing. I probably live in the only area of Canada where it would work — at least without some sort of pre-heater.
Most customers wouldn't want to own. By the time three years have passed the technology would have moved on and this would be obsolete.
The hybrids have been working just fine year round though. Mileage is off just a tad when it is 40 below.
Presumably, the dealership will have a filling station. Other than that, your options will probably be pretty limited.
By coincidence, I live only a mile away from the Southern California Air Quality Monitoring Division office in Diamond Bar, which has hydrogen. I have no idea what it costs.
$600/mo is still a pretty pricey lease for an econobox, though. I could lease a Lexus RX400 hybrid for that.
Looks like some sort of large scale test.. Car looks okay.. I’d like to know the performance numbers.
Good for Honda.. But, chances are, this is all a PR campaign....
“Buy when the technology has matured a bit, and has a track record of reliability.”
Excellent Point on risk taking. That’s interesting.
My ‘03 hybrid in CA could be sold for almost what I bought it for. However, that’s mostly because it has those coveted diamond lane stickers on it. They only gave away 45k of them. They add about $4k or more to resale, or so I’m told.
That all sounds pretty logical.
But it cut no ice with all the cry babies when GM took back the GM EV1 at the end of their leases.
Hopefully, Honda will decide to continue with new models after this introductory vehicle and its lease-only aspect.
at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Calif.
Why does this not seem like a good idea?
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