While green seemed to be the color of the Los Angeles Auto Show, only a few new vehicles could truly live up to the label. One of those few vehicles was the FCX Clarity, a fuel-cell vehicle by Honda, which is set to go into limited production for those lucky enough – and probably rich enough – to lease one. The zero-emission hydrogen powered vehicle will be the first broad distribution of the Honda developed fuel-cell platforms.
The fuel-cell powered vehicle can achieve about 68 miles per gallon, and a full tank will take you 270 miles. As with most green vehicles, the Clarity is not simply concerned about its emissions, but about the materials it uses as well. The fabric is made from Honda’s Bio-Fabric, a plant-based material.
While hydrogen is still manufactured from natural gas, the total emissions in producing this material is still about half of what the same emissions from gasoline would be. To offset these emissions, Honda is developing their very own solar-powered, home-based hydrogen refueling station. American Honda plans to lease the FCX Clarity to a small number of consumers in California next year, at around $600 per month.
+Honda FCX Clarity
[...] forget Transportation Tuesday over at Inhabitat – Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle and GE’s Hybrid [...]
[...] While green seemed to be the color of the Los Angeles Auto Show, only a few new vehicles could truly live up to the label. One of those few vehicles was the FCX Clarity, a fuel-cell vehicle by Honda, which is set to go into limited production for those lucky enough – and probably rich enough – to lease one. The zero-emission hydrogen powered vehicle will be the first broad distribution of the Honda developed fuel-cell platforms. [From Inhabitat » TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY: Honda FCX Clarity] [...]
I think that Honda is one of the most innovative companies in the world; we have 2 Insights which, 7 years after their introduction, are still the most fuel-efficient cars on the road. But any mention of hydrogen cars must consider the source of the fuel. Honda is developing photovoltaics that could – conceivably – make CO2-free electricity that could be used to electrolize water into hydrogen and oxygen, but it takes a lot of energy to break molecular bonds and then the hydrogen must be thought of more as a battery – a means of storing energy – than as a fuel. It’s production by electrolysis is inefficient. Your article, while noting Honda’s PV system, says that hydrogen comes from natural gas which refers to it’s reformation from any hydrocarbon. Some fuel cell systems include onboard reformers that must be filled with fossil fuels to make the hydrogen that is converted to the electricity that drives the vehicle. That’s why many automakers, oil companies and the Bush administration want us to wait for the “hydrogen future”; in that vision of the future we’ll keep pumping oil and gas to (inefficiently) produce hydrogen.
Unless you get a photovoltaic hydrogen plant with your car – the Honda scheme – hydrogen is just a smokescreen that distracts us from easily available, effective and cheap ways of saving energy and reducing greenhouse emissions while we wait for expensive and inefficient new technology that assures the continued use of fossil fuels. We already don’t have extra, clean sources for electricity, the notion that we will use electricity to make hydrogen to make electricity, with losses each step f the way, is silly.
And what good is that story anyway? It doesn’t tell me what to buy for Christmas to save the planet from consumption.
One thing to consider with these vehicles is also the production of them. The Prius for instance ended up actually making a bigger impact on the environment than a hummer, simply because to assemble it parts and materials needed to be assembled from across the globe. The emissions from the transportation alone means that its lifelong footprint is actually larger than that of a the hummer which is assembled from parts all in one factory.
In the end, these vehicles will always be an improvement because once they are mainstream parts will be produced in one place, but still, we need to look behind the scenes of what the companies are saying.