Big news about Honda: It’s going to bring a hydrogen fuel-cell car to market. Not a prototype for a few dozen people to test - a real car. It’s called the Honda FCX - I mentioned here at Ecotality Life back in mid-September when it was a concept car. Now, Automobile.com reports, that Honda has announced that the FCX sedan would enter production, and be on sale during 2008.
The FCX will include a fuel cell, battery pack and electric motor that produces a horsepower equivalent of about 135 hp. Honda’s advancements in the area of fuel cell technology have allowed it to claim a total range of 354 miles per fill up, which should be more than ample for most peoples’ day-to-day driving needs. The car will look more or less identical to the concept shown here, and size-wise it will occupy the same approximate footprint as the Acury TSX or BMW 3-Series.
While hydrogen is only available at very select refueling stations, the car can be filled up at home thanks to a wall-mounted fuel station. In principle this is similar to what Honda is currently offering with its natural gas-powered Civic, although it differs in that the CNG is merely piped through an existing network already feeding the home’s heating and appliances, where the FCX’s wall-mount actually creates hydrogen by breaking down water into its elements (hydrogen and oxygen) through a process called electrolysis. It is 100-percent green in that the system can be powered (and often is powered) by solar energy.
The production FCX will be unveiled sooner than expected, with a debut at this year’s LA Auto Show in November.
You can read about Honda’s natural gas-powered Civic here and its gas-electric hybrid CR-Z sports coupe concept car here. I’d be happy with any of them in my garage.
Update: The New York Times’ coverage of the Tokyo Auto Show has more info about the FCX and also the upcoming Honda hybrid to compete with the Toyota Prius.
When it arrives, the hybrid will be smaller than a Civic, but “big enough for a family,” said Sage Marie, a spokesman for American Honda. It will be Honda’s first globally sold gas-electric hybrid, and Honda said it hoped the car would be the volume leader, with 200,000 worldwide sales a year. With those lofty sales goals, it might be wise to expect the new Honda hybrid to be the auto industry’s next fuel-economy champ. Honda also announced that it has a goal of 500,000 yearly combined sales of all its hybrid models.
Honda showed its FCX fuel-cell vehicle here, but said a significantly different, nearly production-ready version would be introduced at next month’s Los Angeles auto show.
Interesting.
One Comment
Wow! I had no idea that commercialization of FC vehicles for sale was so close at hand! Thanks for the post…. I have a question, though - how much is Honda planning to charge for these puppies? Aren’t FC vehicles still prohibitively expensive?