The NY Times reports that this past Monday Honda celebrated the start of production of its new FCX Clarity, the world’s first hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicle intended for mass production. Fuel cells work from combining hydrogen and oxygen from the outside air to make electricity in a process whose only byproducts are water and heat. Not only will the use of fuel-cell vehicles help alleviate the effects of climate change but it might eventually provide a financial benefit over oil which has risen to $140 per barrel.While manufacturers have been able to produce cars with fuel cells in the past, Honda’s ability to mass produce this technology is a significant step towards phasing out the use of petroleum-based fuels. As, Kazuaki Umezu, head of Honda’s Automobile New Model Center stated, “basically, we can mass produce these now … we are waiting for the infrastructure to catch up.”
The lack of infrastructure does indeed present one of the most challenging problems to instituting the widespread usage of fuel-cell vehicles. Public filling stations simply do not exist in most places, which would force owners to only drive within a certain vicinity of their home. While creating this infrastructure would be costly, it is certainly possible as states like California have shown.
Although the lack of public filling stations remains a barrier, Honda has taken great strides towards the use of fuel-cell vehicles with their ability to mass produce the FCX Clarity. This technology will result in lowering the prohibitive cost that has always been an issue with the widespread use of fuel cells. While the Clarity costs several hundred thousand dollars to make, this figure will drop below $100,000 in less than a decade as a result of mass production. In the meantime, Honda will subsidize its customers and only charge $600 a month for leasing the vehicle – not much more than the price of leasing one of Honda’s luxury Acura vehicles.
Not only has Honda made fuel-cell cars more practical with this reduction in cost, but their new technology has allowed the customer to sacrifice less in the power department. The Clarity’s fuel-cell unit can generate up to 100 kilowatts of electricity, enough to accelerate the car from zero to 60 miles an hour in less than nine seconds, and give it a top speed of 100 miles an hour, Honda says. Furthermore, unlike electric cars whose batteries must recharge for hours, the Clarity can be refilled at the pump, once they are available, and can drive 280 on a single tank, nearly rivaling gasoline models. It also gets higher fuel efficiency than a gasoline car or hybrid, the equivalent of 74 miles a gallon of gas, according to the company.
It seems that Honda has made a significant breakthrough in finding a viable substitute for gasoline. Fuel cell units are 100% environmentally clean and provide a more practical alternative to the batteries of electric cars. Though usage on a grand scale is a ways away, Honda has made it clear that the main obstacle is not one of production or cost, but of a significant lack of infrastructure. Hopefully Honda’s demonstration that the mass production of fuel-cell vehicles is a feasible enterprise will spur government action to develop the filling station that will help make this substitute to gasoline engines a reality.
Check out the original NY Times Article here.
