Honda set to release hydrogen fuel cell car – and home fuelling station

It seems Honda is gearing up to be the one of the first major companies to bring a hydrogen fuel cell car to market – their FCX Clarity is set to go to production in 2008, in a move they’re hoping will break the catch-22 dilemma stopping motor companies from producing cars because there’s no hydrogen distribution, and stopping fuel companies from distributing hydrogen because there’s no cars that use it. To nurse consumers through the infancy of the hydrogen economy, Honda’s also attempting to decentralize the production of hydrogen through their Home Energy Station unit, which sits outside your house and reforms natural gas to produce enough Hydrogen to power both the car and the home’s energy needs at around 50% of the normal cost and with a 30% emissions reduction.

Honda FCX Clarity

Honda recently announced it will begin limited retail marketing of its FCX Clarity, a 100-kilowatt (150 hp) hydrogen fuel-cell powered compact car, in the middle of 2008. Initially it will be available only in California, but Honda clearly has plans to mass-market the FCX in the medium term if it proves viable.

The FCX Clarity is a zero-emissions, hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle based on the entirely-new Honda V Flow fuel cell platform, and powered by a compact, efficient and powerful fuel cell stack. Featuring impressive improvements to driving range, power, weight and efficiency, the FCX Clarity is Honda’s real-world fuel cell flagship.

The FCX uses an electric motor, which is a much more energy efficient use of the Hydrogen than in a regular combustion engine. Hydrogen combines with atmospheric oxygen in the fuel cell stack, where chemical energy from the reaction is converted into electric power used to propel the vehicle. Additional energy captured through regenerative braking and deceleration is stored in a lithium ion battery pack, and used to supplement power from the fuel cell, when needed. The vehicle's only emission is water.

The FCX clarity boasts a number of improvements over the current FCX prototype, including:

- a 20-percent increase in fuel economy - to the approximate equivalent of 68 mpg2 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-percent increase in vehicle range - to 270 miles;

- a 25-percent 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;

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