2009 Honda FCX Clarity
I woke one day this week to find the future had arrived. Honda had made the hydrogen car a reality through its FCX Clarity. I yawned and went back to bed. Nothing had really changed. Hydrogen cars were still an appealing fantasy, a mirage that recedes just when it seems within reach.
Of course, the media (newspapers, Web, TV) was saying the opposite. The Honda was on its way to showrooms, just in time to save the planet and help the world kick its gasoline habit.
Too bad none of that is true.
Now, don’t get me wrong. The second generation of Honda’s FCX is likely the most advanced fuel-cell car yet — a sleek sedan that drives as well as it looks. Like fuel-cell cars from GM, Ford, Toyota and others, the Honda carries a tank of compressed hydrogen onboard, which mixes with oxygen from the air in a chemical reaction. The result is enough electricity to cover 280 miles on a tank, with heat and water vapor as the only by-products — not a trace of tailpipe pollution.
Watch Video: Honda FCX Clarity
The problem: all the inconvenient truths that Honda and other fuel-cell makers keep glossing over. Yes, the technology is intriguing. But it will still be several years (at best) before you’ll see hydrogen cars in a showroom. Don’t believe me? Ring up some Honda dealers and tell them you’d like to put a down payment on a shiny new FCX Clarity. After they stop laughing, we’ll talk.
Made for the Media
Honda got the flashbulbs popping in Takanezawa, Japan, where the first FCX Clarity models rolled off the assembly line on June 16. As they have in the past, Honda executives promoted the fiction that the FCX Clarity is an actual production car. But by any accepted definition, a production car is one that sits on showroom floors that people can actually buy. The FCX Clarity is more of a working prototype, a test bed for technology.
View Pictures: Hydrogen Powered Cars
You — meaning the average car buyer — will never own this hydrogen car, no matter how much you’re willing to spend. You can’t take one for a test drive. If you live outside of California, you will likely never see an FCX Clarity on the road.
At the plant in Japan, several of the first recipients were on hand to see their hydrogen cars take shape. Honda has selected roughly 100 Americans — including celebrities Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Harris — who will be allowed to pay $600 a month to lease an FCX Clarity for three years, and then return the car to the manufacturer.
Compare fuel-efficient cars you can buy today
Fair enough. Automakers have to start somewhere. And since experts peg the cost of building a single fuel-cell car at $500,000 to $1 million, automakers aren’t about to roll out thousands of these babies at once. But in a U.S. market that will buy roughly 45 million cars over the next three years, what exactly will 100 hydrogen Hondas do for people struggling with gas prices, or for global warming?
Discuss: Will fully electric cars beat hydrogen to the punch?
And why is it always celebrities? Why should the rich-and-famous get the first and often only crack at these sci-fi cars? You can answer that one yourself. Where there’s a celebrity, there’s a TV camera. To Honda, it doesn’t much matter whether real people drive the FCX Clarity, or whether it does anything to save fuel or ease global warming. What’s important is that people see Honda’s green conscience in action.
