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Honda Rolls Out Petroleum-Free Fuel Cell Car
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Honda Rolls Out Petroleum-Free Fuel Cell Car
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TOCHIGI, Japan, June 16, 2008 (ENS) - Honda’s first hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle other than concept cars rolled off the assembly line today in Tochigi Prefecture at the world’s first dedicated fuel cell vehicle manufacturing facility. Nineteen years in development, the FCX Clarity was designed from scratch as a fuel cell vehicle. Only water is emitted from the tailpipe - no greenhouse gases, no smog or soot or other by-products of burning gasoline.
The 2008 Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell car (Photos courtesy American Honda Motors)
It is powered by a compact, efficient, powerful Honda V Flow fuel cell stack, which Honda Engineering Co., Ltd produces, also in Tochigi.
The car is propelled by an electric motor that runs on electricity generated in the fuel cell, in combination with a new compact and efficient lithium-ion battery pack and a single hydrogen storage tank. The refueling range is 270 miles. Honda says the fuel efficiency is three times that of a modern gasoline-powered automobile.
The four passenger sedan’s low-slung appearance is made possible by the innovative layout of the fuel cell power plant, and Honda is emphasizing that the FCX Clarity is fun to drive as well as environmentally responsible.
The first production FCX Clarity rolled off the line just three weeks before the car’s debut in front of world leaders attending the Group of Eight summit July 7-9 in Hokkaido Toyako.
A new dedicated fuel cell vehicle assembly line has been established at the Honda Automobile New Model Center in Tochigi. Here the cars will be produced using processes unique to a fuel cell vehicle such as the installation of the fuel cell stack and hydrogen tank.
To manufacture the fuel cells, unique automated equipment was designed to ensure precision quality while enabling mass production of the fuel cells, with several hundred cells required for each fuel cell stack.
At a ceremony today at the Honda Automobile New Model Centre, Honda hosted three of the drivers who will have the first cars and showcased the new production processes.
Dashboard of the Honda FCX Clarity
On hand to see how the cars they will drive are manufactured were actress Jamie Lee Curtis and her filmmaker husband Christopher Guest, and film producer Ron Yerxa.California drivers will have the FCX Clarity fuel cell car first, even before drivers in Japan. The first five customers, announced Sunday, are the actress Jamie Lee Curtis and her filmmaker husband Christopher Guest; film producer Ron Yerxa; business owner and car enthusiast Jim Salomon; actress and green advocate Laura Harris; and Jon Spallino, partner and chief financial officer of an Irvine, California engineering and construction firm and the world’s first retail customer of a hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle.
Lease sales are scheduled to begin in July in the United States and this fall in Japan. The combined Japan-U.S. sales plan calls for production of a few dozen units within a year and about 200 units within three years.
American Honda announced that three Southern California dealerships will be the world’s first fuel cell automobile dealership network. Power Honda Costa Mesa, Honda of Santa Monica, and Scott Robinson Honda are each located near hydrogen refueling stations and will be well-positioned to support FCX Clarity customers.
“This is an important day in the history of fuel cell vehicle technology and a monumental step closer to the day when fuel cell cars will be part of the mainstream,” said John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda.
“Our customers and dealers share in our vision for a cleaner and more sustainable transportation future, and share in our challenge to embrace a new generation of automotive technology that we think will carry the auto industry and its customers into the future,” he said.
The five customers announced today were among the very first people to share with Honda their passion for the environment and interest in the FCX Clarity, dating back to its debut as a concept model at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show.
FCX Clarity filler inlet for hydrogen gas
“Auto companies can’t explore the potential for fuel cell technology as the ultimate solution to our world’s energy and environmental challenges by ourselves,” said Mendel. “Our customers are true pioneers and leaders in the effort to bring fuel cell technology to the marketplace.”
One of the reasons for this limited initial release is that in order to drive a fuel cell vehicle, drivers must be able to refuel, but hydrogen fueling stations are not on every corner.
Therefore, only customers living in the Torrance, Santa Monica and Irvine areas will be eligible to take an FCX Clarity home. Honda wants to ensure that FCX Clarity drivers can take their vehicles in for service at the three participating dealers and have convenient access to refueling stations.
The 2008 FCX Clarity is available for lease only, there is no purchase option. Honda says it will lease the cars for $600 per month for 36 months; the total of monthly payments equals $21,600. There is no mileage limitation or excess mileage cost.
Honda is responsible for the development of the world’s first fuel cell car, the Honda FCX, to be certified for regular commercial use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board; the first deployment of a fuel cell car with a fleet customer; and the first individual retail customer for a fuel cell vehicle.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.
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July 8th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
This is absolutely amazing… I work for a Honda dealer in Cleveland Hegiths, Ohio and learning more about cars like these is so cool. I’m actually writing blogs about hybrids on our webste (www.motorcarscleveland.com) and this might surely be the next vehicle I cover in one.
Dee Mullens last blog post..5 Ways to Get An Extra 55mpg Out of A Prius
July 19th, 2008 at 5:59 am
I am a retired aircraft mech! I love this .. We need a cleaner enviro to live in. I am hoping the dingbats in Detroit catch on!! Honda is looking 4 profit from this 21 to 22 K dollars in not un reasonabul for a car like this an its a profit 4 Honda I love it!! HELLO FORD &GM whay rocks have you guys been sleeping under.Build them and they will come (Remeber Levet town) Enough of these on te market ill bet shell, exxon/moble, Matharon, Phillips 66 conoco, will be killing each other to build staions for fueling!! Wish i was a young man These are exciting times AS T Bone Pickens Has said “Its our problem 2 solve and we Cannot drill our way out of this”. All the energy is there wating to b tapped. Lets do it TOGETHER There is nothing we cant over come…
July 19th, 2008 at 6:10 am
One more comment in passing. This is just so xciting If the German Navy can run Subs on this tech. Im sure the the “BIG3″ ha ha ha!!! can run a car on it, I can envision a time of MAG-LIFT 300 to 400M PH trains, Wind power generating electric,super conductors delivering the power .. The par dine shift is underway the jarganut is starting down the hill ,get on it or get left in the dust . Reminds me of the manufacturer of the finest button hooks in the world.. HELLO DETROIT>>>>DO you COPIE ME ?? OVER
July 20th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Did you know that if every car in america was miraculously turned into a fuel cell vehicle and emitted no pollution that we would be polluting this planet 2.8 times more than we already do!? We don’t just drill into the earth and get pure hydrogen! we have to make it… which takes lots of energy! How do we make our energy in this country!!??? any body???
By burning wondrous coal!!!! Yay!!!
When we green up our energy making then we can start to worry about our cars. The mass media is skewing our priorities.
July 20th, 2008 at 11:42 am
But kudos to the car companies getting a good start on the wonderful technology of these fuel cell vehicles. They are the future, hopefully, as is the full electric car, and more efficient technologies will come.
July 20th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
If the U.S. had decided to be a moral people, and leaving Iraqi oil alone, and following Al Gore, decided to develop the South Western deserts, with the technology of the times, solar/thermal-molten sodium – electricity installations, for the same amount of money as that war cost, today, we would be tapping into the largest, renewable, sustainable, energy source the world has ever known. It would have paid every energy bill in the U.S.A. for maintenance fees only - FOREVER! It is an oil field that can NEVER run dry! Low cost electric power for all! After the millions of murders, and billions of dollars, borrowed from our children’s futures and spent, with thousands of our own and others maimed and disfigured for life, millions of families utterly destroyed, ours and theirs, we are no closer to Iraqi oil production than the Iraqis are!
The next time you hear a blithering idiot spoiled brat, drunken, drug addicted, sociopath, rich, daddie’s, Arabic saber dancing boy, stand at a microphone and threaten YOUR safety with someone ELSE’S weapons, remember what you lost America, remember, and weep!