Car Advice: Honda FCX Claritry Information update

By Anthony Crawford May 17th, 2011

Southern California, for all it’s smog (and trust me it still hangs in the San Fernando ‘Valley’ twenty-four seven) it still regarded as the automotive ‘Green’ capital of the world, when it comes to big cities.

There are also thousands of Toyota Prius’ within the California state lines and while they are certainly classified as ‘environmentally friendly’ the ‘Green’ star must surely go to Honda’s FCX Clarity.

Launched in 2008, the Clarity is a proper fuel cell electric vehicle with zero emissions and in some cases, offers 5 minute refuelling times. The other more important news is that the 26 lucky Honda Clarity customers, who lease the car for a grand total of US$600 per month, never have to worry about the price of petrol, regardless of what happens in the Middle East. You see – hydrogen is free. At least, for the time being it is.

FCX Clarity drivers now have access to seven ‘fast-fill’ hydrogen refuelling stations throughout Southern California and last Friday, the world’s first station supplied by an existing hydrogen pipeline opened across the street from Toyota’s Motor Corp’s sales division.

The new Royal Dutch Shell hydrogen station will mainly service test fleets from the likes of Toyota (who incidentally lease the land to Shell), Daimler AG, Hyundai Motor Co and General Motors and of course, those fortunate Honda Clarity drivers.

Honda hopes to have at least 200 FCX Clarity cars on the road within a few years. In traffic congested place like Los Angeles, there is an even greater benefit to driving this ultra green Honda. The deal is that fuel cell vehicles get an automatic ‘white sticker’, which qualifies them to travel in the transit lanes (high occupancy lanes) and that goes for a single driver with no passengers.

It’s a great deal if you can get it, but if it’s that good, why aren’t there thousands of them on the road all over the world?

It’s a question of dollars – they cost plenty to build and it’s likely that Honda looses money on each and every Clarity they make.

Five years ago, Ford said that their fuel cell Focus cost $1 million to build although, Toyota said this year, that the actual costs have come down by 90 percent, which would mean US$100,000, but that’s still way out of the ball park for average consumers.

That said Toyota says that they also plan to release their own fuel cell model by 2015 at a cost of around US$50,000. It makes huge sense when you weigh up the benefits. Hydrogen can be made from natural gas or water, you can refill your car in minutes with a range of several hundred kilometres or more and the clincher, and there are no exhaust emissions.

Whichever way you cut it, the only sustainable fuel model for the global automotive industry is hydrogen fuel cells. The Hybrids and electric plug-in vehicles are simply stop/gap solutions while the collective technology partners work it all out on the fuel cell front.

Source;
http://www.caradvice.com.au/119109/honda-fcx-clarity-%E2%80%93-as-%E2%80%98green%E2%80%99-as-it-gets/

Japan to sell fuel cell cars in 2015

-100 refuelling stations by 2015
-Four areas in Japan to benefit
-Progress is being made in Europe, too

Sales of hydrogen fuel cell cars will kick off Japan in 2015, car manufacturers and hydrogen suppliers jointly announced recently.

Although numbers of vehicles have not been discussed, the partnership of Honda, Nissan and Toyota said 2015 would mark the start of 'mass production' of fuel cells.

Hydrogen suppliers have committed to establishing a network of 100 refuelling stations in Japan to serve the cars.

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it would support the expansion of the hydrogen network.

Work is also underway on developing fuel cells and hydrogen refuelling in Europe. There are already a chain of refuelling points along the HyNor 'hydrogen highway' in Norway, between Oslo and Stavanger.

Mercedes is already trialing fuel-cell versions of the B-Class, while Kia and General Motors have both said they will sell 10,000 fuel cell vehicles each by 2015.

Source;
http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/japan-to-sell-fuel-cell-cars-in-2015/254919

Honda drives toward home solar hydrogen refueling

* Hydrogen car FCX Clarity to go to market around 2018
* Carmaker touts solar-powered home refueling option
* 48 solar panels for 10,000 miles per year

By Mary Milliken

TORRANCE, California, March 12 (Reuters) - Coming not so soon and probably not to a house near you is the home solar hydrogen refueling station -- Honda Motor Co's (7267.T) latest idea in its drive to make hydrogen the fuel of choice for zero emission cars.

The Japanese auto giant believes hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles offer the best long-term alternative to fossil fuels and the company showed on Friday a refueling breakthrough that it says points to a home version down the road.

Most major automakers have spent billions of dollars in researching hydrogen-powered fuel cells, tempted by the idea of a car that uses no gasoline and emits only water vapor. But Honda is widely seen as the hydrogen leader, while others like General Motors GM.UL put more effort into battery-powered electric vehicles like the upcoming Volt.

One of the big barriers to hydrogen car deployment is the lack of refueling infrastructure, leading Honda to bet that the future lies in combining a public station network with a more modest home option.

Honda's home option will comprise a solar-powered hydrogen refueling station using solar panels.

"Customers can choose how they interact with both of them based on their annual miles and their habits," said Stephen Ellis, fuel cell manager at the Honda's North American headquarters in Torrance, California.

'BIGGEST PROGRESS'

"The key thing to remember is that with five-minute refueling you are good for another 240 miles," Ellis added.

That range comes from the "fast-fill" public station, of which there are just a handful in Southern California, where Honda leases 15 FCX Clarity hydrogen-powered vehicles and is set to distribute more in coming months.

Eight hours of home solar refueling would guarantee a smaller range of 30 miles (50 km) or about 10,000 miles (16,000 km per year -- enough for an average commuting car.

At the Los Angeles R&D center, engineers refueled the sleek FCX Clarity sedan with a new single-unit station connected to a solar array that replaces a two-unit system, cutting costs and improving efficiency by 25 percent.

"This is wonderful progress, the biggest progress," said Ikuya Yamashita, the chief engineer of the station.

The station uses a 6-kilowatt solar array, composed of 48 panels and thin film solar cells developed by a Honda subsidiary. It breaks down the water into hydrogen in what Honda calls a "virtually carbon-free energy cycle."

The FCX Clarity's hydrogen "stack" -- or the electricity generator -- is around the size of an attache case, tucked between the two front seats, and is a fifth of the stack size developed a decade ago.

The car is likely to be sold commercially around 2018 in the luxury large sedan category, while the solar hydrogen refueling system could move beyond the research stage and into the market-ready phase around 2015.

"A lot of this work is not necessarily for today's economic situation," said Ellis. "This is for tomorrow, when most people feel energy prices will be higher."

(Additional reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Gary Hill)

Source;
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1212479020100313?type=marketsNews

The Honda FCX Clarity, the world’s first commercially available, zero-emission hydrogen car;

Here's a good read on the Honda FCX Clarity....

Honda’s new gas guzzler

Nowadays, emission-free motoring is the ultimate Hollywood accessory.

Even hybrids, like the Toyota Prius, don’t really cut it anymore. Which probably helps to explain why Arnold Schwarzenegger, the man who was once famed for his love of environmentally-unfriendly Hummers, happily champions the green cause. Indeed, the politician is now the power behind California’s so-called Hydrogen Highway, the busy thoroughfare that runs between San Francisco and San Diego.

You’ll find the epicentre of LA’s piece of that road just off the 405 freeway, one of the world’s most polluted motorways, where a Shell petrol station equipped with a hydrogen pump is the main refuelling hub for the rare Honda FCX Clarity.

The Honda FCX Clarity, the world’s first commercially available, zero-emission hydrogen car, is currently only available to lease in Japan and California, primarily because they’re the only places where hydrogen is relatively available. The cost for a three-year lease in either market is approximately $600 (Dh2,200) per month, which includes maintenance.

Before I am let loose behind the wheel of the vehicle Honda describes as the “sedan of the future”, I’m shown how to fill up the Clarity, which proves fast and simple. In fact, in less than five minutes, I have enough energy onboard for more than 320km of roaming. It cost almost $30 to fill the tank – about the same price as it would to fill the tank of a similar-sized car with petrol.

This Honda is an amazing piece of wizardry. It’s powered by a compact and efficient electric motor, which is fed by a fuel cell that converts hydrogen from the tank and oxygen from the air into electricity. The only byproduct of this process is water vapour, which comes out of the exhaust pipe. The hydrogen is compressed to 5,000psi and stored in a tank under the boot.

The FCX’s Vertical Flow fuel cell stack has been designed to be compact, leaving more space for occupants. The car is also designed to recover energy that would otherwise be lost while braking or decelerating, which is stored as electricity in a lithium-ion battery pack found under the rear seat, allowing for more interior and boot space.

The Clarity’s range is fine, too, if you know you are going to be close to another filling station.

Currently, one of the biggest hurdles in selling hydrogen-powered vehicles is the lack of infrastructure to make owning one as convenient as owning a petrol-powered car. As yet, hydrogen does not give you the complete freedom of the open road.

So with all that in mind, I map out our road test route. Carefully.

We will head up near Burbank, then across the Santa Monica Mountains to Malibu, down the Pacific Coast Highway and through Venice. The return leg will be up the infamous 405 to Los Angeles International Airport, where the first hydrogen station opened, for a substantial but sustainable meal at the city’s hippest eco eatery.

Any fool could drive the Clarity – just flick the switch into Drive with the steering column-mounted lever and the car moves off, albeit with little of the grunt you’d expect from a big petrol engine.

It gets to 100kph in about 10 seconds and reaches a maximum speed of 160kph. The ride quality, though, is as good as a Rolls-Royce.

For a car for the future, the Clarity is remarkably contemporary to drive. For some reason I’d expected an experience nothing like the norm but, despite the cutting-edge power source, the delivery of power is familiar.

It may be a bit breathless compared with the sprightly characteristics of most Hondas, and unnaturally quiet (something we will all have to get used to with one form of alternative power or other) but Honda has retained its company DNA for ride and handling.

Sadly though, the interior is dull. I’d have liked to feel as if I was in something more space shuttle than old people’s home.

But the Star Trek element is at least evident in a series of gauges and indicators that pulsate in vibrant electro blue rather like a 1990s Japanese boom box. One of the key indicators shows hydrogen reserves. I thought it would be like watching sand slide through an egg timer, seeing the sole power source for the car evaporate with every twitch of the accelerator. But no, it dropped gently – until I got on the motorway. Then it started plummeting.

There’s nothing like not knowing where your next filling station is coming from to focus the mind. It’s great having a hydrogen car but greater still when there’s enough places to refuel.

Heading out into traffic, I felt like a star. Kids, truckers and even muscle car drivers flagged me down and gave me the thumbs-up. The Clarity doesn’t look all that different from a normal car, but apparently people still notice it.

Sun kissed and sand fringed, Santa Monica and Venice Beach are in fact LA’s green belt. Here, sustainability sells.

Surfboard and skateboard makers Arbor use bamboo not only for their wave and street riders but also for clothing. It’s no gimmick. Surfers might want the cleanest of water, but would never relinquish speed across the surf or pavements for sustainability.

Serving in Venice today is the Green Truck to Go, a mobile kitchen powered by biofuel and solar-power, that dishes up meals of local produce from the side of the road. I grab a fantastic tortilla wrap to keep myself fuelled.

“LA is really a green place at heart. Only because we need our cars so much is that compromised,” says Green Truck founder Mitchell Collier, whose regular customers include the film director Ridley Scott and the celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. “It is becoming normal now in LA to choose the green option, given one.”

Our last stop is for a bite at Akasha, LA’s top organic restaurant. Pierce Brosnan and Robert Redford swing by. Miley Cyrus, who was filming in studios at Culver City, also makes an appearance.

“I’d like to say we are doing something new,” says Akasha Richmond. “But go back to Hollywood in the 1930s and health food and green living were all the rage then. The Germans brought their organic living with them to LA and Hollywood lapped it up.

“The difference now is that so much of that has been diluted that the green movement has a greater fight to get its head above water. But the immediate influence of stars and their eco beliefs has been tremendous.”

It’s obvious that Californians are serious about going green, which makes it obvious why Honda chose the Golden State as its Clarity test bed. With the success of the hydrogen car here, one can only wonder how soon the Clarity will be seen in driveways in the rest of the US states – and beyond.

Source;
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100102/MOTORING/701019950/1247/life