2009 Honda FCX Clarity
Honda's new FCX fuel-cell vehicle is a futuristic jellybean that will be coming to a dealership near you early in 2009

For a moment, after pressing the little red "Start" button, it seems like nothing has happened. Suddenly, a kaleidoscope of colors erupts from the multi-level instrument panel, followed by the soft whine of a compressor. Honda's new FCX fuel-cell vehicle has come to life.

As regular readers of TheCarConnection.com are well aware, virtually every automaker is tinkering with hydrogen technology, and for good reason. Whether you burn the lightweight gas in an internal combustion engine or feed it into a fuel cell stack, what you get on the "dirty side" is effectively no more than water vapor. In a world worrying about smog and global warming, hydrogen is seen, by many, as the ultimate clean fuel.

In recent months, we've had the opportunity to test a variety of hydrogen-powered prototypes, such as the Chevrolet Equinox fuel-cell vehicle and BMW's Hydrogen-7, which goes the internal combustion route. But Honda's FCX takes the technology to an entirely new level.

First seen at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show, Honda plans to begin leasing the FCX for $600 a month, and not just to carefully selected corporate fleets, but to everyday consumers. The costly experiment is also a risky one, exposing the Clarity to all the daily challenges faced by your typical motorist, from bad weather to fussy infants.

"The FCX Clarity is a shining symbol of the progress we've made with fuel cell vehicles and of our belief in the promise of this technology," proclaims American Honda president and CEO Tetsuo Iwamura. "Step by step, with continuous effort, commitment and focus, we are working to overcome obstacles to the mass-market potential of zero-emissions hydrogen fuel-cell automobiles."

Read more here!

Last month I read an article (maybe it was two months ago) that downplayed the plausibility of a hydrogen fuel cell engine. Now, I read that several manufacturers are currently marketing or nearly ready to market just such a vehicle. Personally, I love it. I hate smog, I don't like getting fuel on my hands and as a conservationist, I think this is definitely better for the environment.

I picked this article and this car because it appears to be the first available to Joe Blow. $600 a month is just a little out of my price range, but many people can afford it. So what does that mean? It means the "free market" worked. Ok, it isn't exactly a free market, but this change did come about with very little government help. Just remember that when the health care debate comes up again.

Cool but uhhhhh, where do you buy the hydrogen? cuz, I haven't seen any hydrogen stations being built in my neighborhood, how about in yours? and I agree, $600 a month for a car I won't ever own seems steep...

I'd rather go electric. You can plug them in anywhere.

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Well....I may be wrong, but I think it carries the water and then converts it...but I don't see that anywhere in the article...so I may be wrong.

There is a lease program Honda is doing in California. I think they discuss those details involving the lease program.

Yeah, electric powered by fusion seems the best to me.

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They have the research to prove Hydrogen can be generated at home from water. There are articles in the Environment Forum about this breakthroughs. If what the most recent articles are saying is true, it will be much cheaper than gas.

But the problem is the infrastructure and how to move beyond the successful research to mass marketting.

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Which is why we should just skip hydrogen powered cars and do electric.

If you want to check out what can happen with an Electric Car check out a company called Tesla.

How long does the charge last for? It would need to have a long charge to be useful in nations like Australia where there are long distances between cities.

The Tesla super car gets about 250 miles on one charge as far as I know. You throw some solar panels up and you are off the grid with your car.

Yep, that's a good temporary solution--and when you consider that a fusion plant would be able to provide power much more efficiently than our current most efficient source of power (fission), then that's quite a few charges.

__________________
"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.