Honda's hydrogen fightback

Hydrogen fuelled electric cars could be a reality in showrooms and on roads in as early as ten years time, says Honda... Though at hefty pricetags and in relatively small numbers.
 
Highlighted by the limited production of its FCX Clarity luxury four-seater, the standalone Japanese car and motorcycle giant says hydrogen is still very much the fuel of the future and has pledged to have "commercially viable" fuel cell cars for sale by 2018.
 
The FCX Clarity was 'launched' in the USA last year. A full-sized four-place luxury car, it is in limited production at Honda's Tochigi plant -- the same facility that once built NSX sportscars.
 
Clarity boasts a range in excess of 320km and petrol-equivalent economy of around 3.9L/100km. Its fuel tank holds about 4kg of hydrogen compressed at 5000psi. In the USA currently hydrogen is sold at 64 refuelling stations.

In the Los Angeles area where the US Clarity roll out is centred, there are three mainstream outlets where the universe's most abundant element is dispensed via a petrol-style bowser, priced at US$5.00/kg -- in energy equivalency terms around $2.50/US gallon.
 
But it's not the cost of hydrogen as a fuel that's attractive to Honda and other major brands (including Toyota, GM and Daimler) currently pursuing fuel cell development. Rather it's that hydrogen promises almost limitless availability and, in fuel cell applications, zero emissions. Indeed, all that comes from the FCX's exhaust pipe is water vapour.
 
Fuel cells produce electricity via a chemical reaction between hydrogen, atmospheric oxygen and chemical elements contained within the 'mechanicals' of the cell. There are no moving parts inside the cell, but they do require compressed air and cooling (and in some cases, heating) infrastructure.
 
In the case of the Clarity, the briefcase-sized 70kg fuel cell is housed in the centre spine of the vehicle (under a rather conventional centre console). Electricity is stored in a lithium ion battery stack and also fed direct from the fuel cell to an elegantly simple electric drivetrain driving the front wheels. Day to day driving is achieved via a blend of battery and direct cell electrical power.
 
Like all EVs, the Clarity features regenerative braking and electric power steering, air-conditioning and ancillaries. It drives for all intents and purposes like a 'normal' car and even features luxury accoutrements such as adaptive cruise control, heated and cooled seats and collision mitigation technologies.
 
Just eight of the hand-built cars are in private hands in the USA. Honda will build 200 of the Claritys over a three-year period and offer them for lease in Japan and the USA. The cars cost $US600 per month to lease -- including insurance and maintenance. Interested 'purchasers' apply via Honda's FCX website www.fcx.honda.com
 
High profile leaseholders of the 'early eight' include actress Jamie Lee Curtis, but Honda says it wants a "wide range of people" driving the cars. It already has a high school principal and a district attorney on its 'books' for example. Candidates are 'screened' for suitability on the basis of green credentials and proximity to hydrogen supply stations.
 
Says Honda, the lease payments recoups just a fraction of the true cost of the cars. Indeed, Honda America's Environmental and Safety Specialist, Todd Mittleman, would not even hint at the true cost of the FCX when the Carsales Network drove the car in California this week.
 
"Somewhere between too little and too much," was Mittleman's response when we suggested the car might have a 'real' pricetag in excess of US$300,000.
 
"In the past they might have been considered million-dollar cars, but the cost [of fuel cell technology] has dropped dramatically," Mittleman told the Carsales Network
 
It's this cost reduction and the rapid advancement of fuel cell chemistry and technology that makes Honda confident it will be able to sell fuel cell cars at prices competitive to conventional luxury cars by 2018. That year is the deadline set by Honda President emeritus Takeo Fukui two years ago and reiterated in interviews with US media by current boss Takanobu Ito at last month's Tokyo Motor Show.
 
Mittleman says the commercialisation of fuel cells in passenger cars is a work in progress, but denies Honda is tilting at windmills. He suggests the US government's about-turn on cutting funding for hydrogen auto research and recent announcements of multi-million euro investments in hydrogen infrastructure in Germany are both proof positive that the technology is closer to real world application.
 
"This is looking at the future. It's not two years; it's not three years; it's not five years... Hybrids are short to mid-term; battery electric vehicles are mid-term and there's a role for them long term; but the advances we're making with Clarity are so significant," Mittleman said.
 
"We're talking another nine years before Honda sees fuel cell vehicles as commercially viable. When I say commercially viable, not $19,890 but at a price comparable to that of a luxury car
 
Mittleman said the Clarity's $600 per month fee was comparable with the US costs to lease a Honda Legend (Acura RL stateside). The parallel suggests that it is Legend sort of money (or more) that Honda has in its sights for the fuel cell car come 2018.
 
"Everyone's focusing on fuel cell but as we get precious metal loadings down [the platinum used in fuel cells is one of the reasons for their high cost] and greater efficiency, one [other] area of cost we're focusing on is sharing parts with other vehicles. If we're only to build 200 Accords they would be prohibitive [in cost too]. As more numbers of [fuel cell] vehicles are built cost will come down," Mittleman opined.
 
He also points out that Honda's FCX development efforts bring benefits to the company's recent Tokyo announcements regarding the brand's move into battery electric vehicles.
 
"People discount Honda with battery technology but we're the first to put a lithium ion battery on the road with the Clarity... So the research that has gone into the lithium ion battery and the ultra capacitor [in the Clarity] has been going on for years. Our experience with electric vehicles advances [with the development of the Clarity].
 
"It's important to point out that Honda's not [just] thinking five years down the line. It's thinking 10, 20 years. It's been just ten years since the hybrid was introduced to the US... and now in everyone's minds they been here forever."
 
Mittleman is realistic when it comes to the volumes of fuel cell vehicles we can expect in the market by the end of the next decade.
 
We're not talking numbers we're talking ultimate technology. [In terms of] Numbers, I think hybrid electric vehicles are here for a long time... The numbers of hybrid electric vehicles are [still] going to dwarf fuel cell vehicles.
 
"[The Clarity] is the message that Honda is thinking about the future and as a company we don't think just five years out," Mittleman said.

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