TOKYO MOTOR SHOW: FCV concept champions Honda's high-tech leadership

Honda is planning to retake the technology high ground from Toyota, with a new fuel-cell vehicle to match the Mirai.

The FCV Concept, which will go public at the Tokyo motor show tomorrow (Wednesday), is definitely entering series production, Honda says, and is due to reach global markets during the northern-hemisphere spring next year. There's little chance we'll see it any time soon in Australia, but the water-emitting Honda is a harbinger of future personal transport.

And Honda is on a roll at the moment, with the company seemingly noticing Tesla's roll-out of EV-charging infrastructure. Honda's answer to that is the Smart Hydrogen Station and the Power Exporter 9000. The former is only to be marketed in Japan and the USA for the moment, but will convert water to hydrogen by electrolysis from clean, renewable energy. The latter is a portable, fast-charging inverter that can revive a car with a flat battery – whether it be a plug-in hybrid, a battery-electric vehicle or a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle like the FCV.

As for the FCV, it's a major redevelopment of the EV technology fitted to the company's FCX Clarity, but with new hydrogen tanks, a relocated fuel-cell stack and an optimised battery pack (which has also been relocated). On the drive front, the electric motor now produces 130kW and 300Nm, versus 100kW and 256Nm for the FCX Clarity, so performance is expected to be better still – although the earlier car was easily capable of attaining 160km/h speeds on Germany's autobahns. The one retrograde step is the weight of the concept car, which is greater than the Clarity's, but Honda is not yet prepared to say by how much. Any further word on the new car's specifications will have to wait until the launch, about six months from now.

Honda has found ways to make the fuel cell stack much more compact – and much cheaper to build, with a lower precious metals content and a different construction. It's 33 per cent smaller than the stack in the Clarity. And according to a Honda engineer, speaking through an interpreter yesterday to motoring.com.au, there has been "drastic cost reduction" to manufacture the new car.

By turning the electric traction motor through 90 degrees, relative to the front axle line, the company's engineers found more room under the bonnet for the fuel cell stack to reside there also, along with the new, integrated and smaller power control unit. This freed up room elsewhere, with the battery pack 'optimised' and placed below the floor, along with one small hydrogen tank, which is directly below the rear seat. A much larger tank is over the rear axle and does occupy what would be boot space in a conventional sedan, although Honda claims the FCV will boast the largest luggage capacity of any production fuel cell vehicle when it comes to market.

Honda anticipates the FCV in production trim will go 700km on one (hydrogen) fill. The Honda engineer says that feedback from Clarity users informed the decision to go with a large main tank, rather than set up the FCV for improved packaging, but a range of just 400-500km. Clarity users (not owners, the car was leased), made it clear to Honda they would rather have the longer range than more interior space or luggage capacity.

That said, the FCV is plenty spacious inside for rear-seat accommodation. A pre-production car was sampled at Honda's Tochigi proving ground yesterday. Over a very brief run the chief improvements apparent were the new car's lower NVH level. No longer is the air compressor a conspicuously loud whine at speed. It's still present in the FCV, but much quieter than before, and, as an engineer along for the ride pointed out, only audible when the fuel cell stack is working to the max to produce electricity from hydrogen. That would be under full-bore acceleration usually.

Honda has found a partner willing to support the fuel cell work with money the table. General Motors and Honda have entered in a joint venture agreement to commercialise the technology for a new product or products currently under development for an expected 2020 launch date. Honda is supplying the stack and hydrogen tanks for the venture.

In addition, Honda announced or recapitulated new technological developments at the company's R&D centre in Tochigi (Japan) this week. These include a 10-speed automatic transmission for 'V6 class' passenger vehicles, a plug-in hybrid Accord, new 1.0 and 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engines, Honda SENSING (autonomous driving systems).

The 10-speed automatic transmission is a first for front east/west engines and front-wheel drive applications, Honda claims. The same size as the six-speed automatic it replaces, the 10-speeder offers quieter motoring at 100km/h – dropping engine speed from 1920rpm in top gear of the six-speed transmission to just 1500rpm in 10th gear. There's a broader spread of ratios too, with first providing a very low ratio for fast launches. Acceleration is boosted by the extra ratios in a close-ratio cluster, with Honda claiming a 14 per cent reduction in overtaking times. Unlike the six-speed transmission, the new unit will kick down more than one gear at a time to find the right ratio for the engine's power delivery characteristics.

We won't see the new transmission in Australia – not in the short term at least – it being reserved for cars with V6 power.

Nor is the plug-in hybrid Accord likely to make it to Australia, with the current (non-plug-in) variant generally held to be too expensive as it stands. The plug-in model would cost even more, landed in Australia.

However, the new 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine will be coming to Australia, with the introduction of the 10th-generation Civic next year. Honda Australia Director Stephen Collins has told motoring.com.au that the fuel-efficient engine will power the new Civic, which will also be very competitively priced, Collins promises. There will also be a naturally-aspirated engine as a cost-effective powertrain variant in the range. Honda says that the 1.5-litre turbo delivers the same sort of performance as a naturally-aspirated 1.8-litre four-cylinder. A drive around the Tochigi proving ground in a Chinese market Jade wagon revealed the 1.5-litre turbo engine, coupled to a CVT, delivered satisfactory performance in the wagon, which is heavier than the new Civic will be. On the banked bends at either end of the track, the Jade was reaching an indicated 183km/h, with more poke left in it.

Honda's bundle of autonomous driving safety systems – Honda SENSING – is expected to start reaching global markets in production cars within about five years. The company has already made great progress, with systems such as CMBS (low-speed autonomous emergency braking), LKAS (Lane Keep Assist) and other active safety systems already in production cars. The latest system announced by Honda is Traffic Jam Assist (TJA) – a facility broadly equivalent the Stop&Go Pilot from Mercedes-Benz. Honda's system, which will make it into production within the next few years, was also demonstrated at Tochigi. Not only did the system faithfully follow the car in front, it also backed off to let another car change lane to squeeze in front of the TJA-equipped vehicle, a new Honda Legend. TJA works below 72km/h (45MPH), LKAS looks after things above that speed.

"There are several challenges to developing this technology for the public roads, but we are currently working on this," said Honda engineer Yoichi Sugimoto, explaining why the autonomous Honda may not appear before 2020 – and why Honda can't guarantee that no one will die in its new cars at some foreseeable point in the future.