Honda lays groundwork for FCX Clarity launch

Posted on 16 Sep 2011 at 10:21

Honda used its hydrogen-powered car, the FCX Clarity, as the centre point of its presence at the World Hydrogen Technologies Conference in Glasgow this week, underlining the company's focus on pollution-free technologies for future transportation.

The FCX Clarity is, at its heart, a simple electric car. Unlike traditional plug-in electrics, however, there's no battery to charge: instead, the power is generated from a hydrogen fuel cell stack, which reacts stored hydrogen with atmospheric oxygen and produces as its only emission plain old water vapour.

The use of hydrogen fuel cells has an array of benefits over a traditional lithium-ion battery-based car: the range offered by the FCX Clarity is an impressive 288 miles, with a top speed of 100mph and handling on a par with a petrol car. More importantly, the vehicle can be refuelled with hydrogen in under four minutes - a significant improvement on the multiple hours required by a plug-in electric hybrid's battery recharge cycle.

While it's easy to dismiss Honda's creation as yet another impractical concept car, the company has been keen to demonstrate its commitment to the project: it's already possible to lease, although not buy, commercial examples of the vehicle in America and Japan where there is an emerging infrastructure of hydrogen refuelling stations, and the company has announced a partnership with BOC and Forward Swindon to open the UK's first public hydrogen refuelling station later this month.

Author: Gareth Halfacree

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