2010 Honda FCX Clarity

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Summary

The 2010 Honda FCX Clarity is a break through vehicle. Currently, the FCX Clarity is available for lease to selected people interested in the southern California area. However, the FCX Clarity may be available in additional areas if charging stations are built. The Honda FCX Clarity is a hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle. A hydrogen fuel cell replaces a conventional engine in the FCX Clarity. The fuel cell provides propulsion for the vehicle. Fuel cells produce electricity through chemical reactions that take place within and are extremely efficient at doing so. The only emissions coming from the vehicle is water vapor. Fuel cells offer a possible alternative to hybrid or all electric vehicle.

Full Review 2010

Since setting up mass production in June 2008 at Honda's automobile new model centre in Toshigi, Japan (it used to produce the NSX sports car) the workers there have produced just 18 complete cars - enough to warrant the sack in any other car plant, but then the economic conditions have been rather against statement environmental cars like this Honda and the FCX is anything but simple to make.

While the FCX is the first commercially available fuel-cell vehicle, you lease rather than buy it. Mr and Mrs Jamie Lee Curtis and Ron Yerxa, director of Little Miss Sunshine, already lease examples. They'll be paying Honda $600 a month for the privilege, with fuel on top. This currently costs between $5 and $10 per kilogram and the Honda's single pressure tank carries 4kg or 171 liters at 5,000psi, which gives it a total range of between 250 and 270 miles. In the slug-like US economy test it has the energy equivalent fuel consumption of about 60 Miles per Kilogram with a Fuel Tank Capacity of 3.92 kg @ 5000psi [1].

Driving the Clarity

To drive the FCX feels fast and heavy. With a top speed of 100mph and a 0-60mph time of about 10sec, it's debatable how fast although, like all electric vehicles, it pulls like a train to 30mph so your perception is of something quicker than it really is.

Look and Style

Apart from being a fabulous looking car, the FCX is pretty much the state-of-the-art fuel-cell development. The cabin designers asked if the fuel cell could be mounted vertically in the centre of the car and the engineers discovered serendipitous benefits. The vertical mounting means the cells drain of potentially damaging water and also allows a more efficient horizontal cooling layout. The internal wavy layout increases the surface area of the platinum membrane for the hydrogen to work on and further developments include the possibility of pressurizing the stack so that operating temperatures can be raised above boiling point. This would reduce the need for drag-inducing cooling radiators and a heavy humidifier.

Fuel cell? It's effectively a gas battery based on a catalytic reaction between platinum and hydrogen that produces electricity. The hydrogen is pumped to an anode on one side of a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM), while air is pumped to the opposite cathode side. The membrane only allows the passage of the positively charged hydrogen ions to pass through, the negatively charged electrons pass through an external circuit to the cathode where they combine with the ions and the oxygen in the air to form water and heat.

The Power

The basics of this "gas battery" were described in a letter written in 1843 by Sir William Grove. His idea was used to power early American telegraph machines and was disinterred by two pioneering engineers at General Electric for Nasa's Gemini moon shots in the Sixties and the car industry some 20 years later.

In the last 10 years developments have been fast and furious: stamped metal separators, aromatic membranes and higher temperatures and pressures. Sir William wouldn't recognize the modern solid-state fuel cell, particularly Honda's latest.

Interior Design

Sit in the commodious cabin and the FCX presents you with dashboard filled with strange looking instruments and some spectacularly artificial maize-derived upholstery. The digital speedometer is surrounded by a power output/input meter, with separate quadrant displays for battery and hydrogen contents. In the centre a strange disembodied ball glows green at low fuel consumption, grows larger and orange as you press the accelerator. A stubby steering column-mounted gearlever offers Drive, Neutral, Park and Reverse. Select drive and pull away.

If the FCX feels weird at first, it is also entirely instinctive. It wafts like the best Rolls-Royce and sounds like an owl is trapped under the bonnet. Power-assisted steering feels artificial but is not unpleasant. The whirring compressor increases volume with the road speed and the FCX gains speed rapidly. Lifting off starts a process in which the motor acts in reverse to recharge the lithium-ion battery.

At 1.7 tons, the car is hardly a sports model, and the tall, low-rolling resistance tires don't offer the last word in grip. Provoke it by lifting off the throttle and the weight of the battery and hydrogen tank in the rear lift the bodywork and the car starts to slide wide in oversteer. The traction control quickly reins this in, but you are left in no doubt that the FCX prefers being driven briskly but not fast.

The FCX doesn't answer any of the questions about where the hydrogen comes from (mainly natural gas) or how it could be delivered to customers. And impressive as the FCX undoubtedly is, even at this first level of pressurisation its hydrogen storage is heavy and very expensive.

The two FCX models that have arrived in Europe are not for sale and it's unlikely that the car will ever go on sale here or indeed anywhere.

For the second time in its history, it has diverted its racing engineers into alternative fuels research. The 400 engineers from Honda's abandoned Formula One programme are now working in fuel-cell research, electric vehicles and advanced aerodynamics.

Sachito Fujimoto, Honda's project leader on the FCX, can barely hide his delight at this influx of money and resources into a project he has toiled over for the last decade. "Mind you," he reflects with a smile, "I haven't noticed my bonus going up at the same time."

Pricing

The Honda FCX Clarity is currently only available for leasing. The leasing region is contained mainly to southern California as this is the only area that has sufficient recharging stations for the hydrogen fuel cell. The hydrogen used for the FCX Clarity is produced from domestic sources and reduces our dependency on foreign oil. The FCX Clarity is currently on limited release and only 200 vehicles will be available over the course of the next three years. Maintenance cost and any damage from collisions is covered in the price of the lease.

Conclusions

Though only available to a select few, the FCX Clarity hints at a possible future for automobiles. Costs of fuel cell vehicles are extremely high at this point. However, Honda believes that fuel cell will be in future vehicles. A beautiful and highly advanced vision of the future with technology that has rival car makers quaking in their beds. USNews.com says "The car's design is utterly unique." Honda's concentration on system efficiency, aerodynamics and light weight rather than packing ever more hydrogen into the car is typical of the marquee and seems a sound R&D direction.

[1]  Fuel economy estimates and driving range based on EPA test data. Your actual driving distance will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle.