Hydrogen Honda FCX Clarity

At the 2007 Motor Show in Los Angeles Honda announced that a limited production would occur for this Honda FCX Clarity. The purpose to be the first cab of the rank with a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. The company is also showing progress with the development of the home Hydrogen filling station, this system is called HES lV. Honda are working in conjunction with Plug Power Inc on this project.

This is the first available from a dealer hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. The down side here is that a limited number became available in Southern California and was available on lease only.

The Hydrogen fuel cell runs along the cars centre tunnel between the front seats, it looks is space age plus based on the Honda concept FCX, some minor changes have been made mainly to the front end design. Vehicle range has improved now giving the Honda the range of 270 miles. The batteries in use here are Lithium ion which means they are not only lighter up to 40% but half the size.

The Hydrogen fuel cell just great but filling could be the issue short term.

The Home fillers HES lV uses natural gas in order to produce the Hydrogen, for the CO2 watchers utilising this system in production of Hydrogen and incorporating it in home heating could reduce these emissions by up to 30%.

But this will take a few years to develop the home system is at least 7 years off.

2007 Launch Los Angeles Motor show of the Honda Hydrogen FCX

Test Drive Honda FCX Clarity Hydrogen

Fuel cell efficiency

The efficiency of a fuel cell is dependent on the amount of power drawn from it. Drawing more power means drawing more current, which increases the losses in the fuel cell. As a general rule, the more power (current) drawn, the lower the efficiency. Most losses manifest themselves as a voltage drop in the cell, so the efficiency of a cell is almost proportional to its voltage. For this reason, it is common to show graphs of voltage versus current (so-called polarization curves) for fuel cells. A typical cell running at 0.7 V has an efficiency of about 50%, meaning that 50% of the energy content of the hydrogen is converted into electrical energy; the remaining 50% will be converted into heat. (Depending on the fuel cell system design, some fuel might leave the system unreacted, constituting an additional loss.)

Jamie lee Curtis is one of the lucky few to lease the Honda in the USA

For Australia no good news on this Honda hybrid from a recent Honda press release

"Honda Australia’s Managing Director, Yasuhide Mizuno said while there were no immediate plans to import the FCX Clarity to Australia it was part of Honda Australia’s long term vision.

“The lack of infrastructure in Australia is the biggest hurdle at present; however the Clarity shows that Honda has introduced the future to the world today."