The PUYO, an environmentally friendly concept car designed by Honda, is just as green as it is, well, cute. The concept vehicle is ultra-efficient, powered by hydrogen fuel cell technology, and a unique aesthetic to boot. The Honda PUYO will officially be unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show at the end of the month.
Its shape was designed to be both as minimalist and as efficient as possible. Indeed, by far the most striking feature of this vehicle is the rather odd ‘seamless soft box’ shape. The body of the vehicle is made of soft materials, which Honda refers to as a ‘gel body’. This body is meant to promote greater real-world safety. Furthermore, the gel body is of a luminescent nature, it lights up!
This vehicle is not as green as it gets. People seem to think hydrogen is ‘green’ just because all you get from the tailpipe is water. Well it’s not!
Hydrogen is mainly produced by steam reformation from fossil fuels, well thats not ‘green’ is it.
Producing hydrogen by the electrical method uses 6 times the amount of energy to produce it than you get out, that’s not ‘green’ either.
Too many people and politicians are duped by the hydrogen hype produced by the fuel companies who’s only interest is to keep using fossil fuels and their existing infostructure.
PEREZOctober 19, 2007 at 8:44 am
i really wish they would stop making these 2 person prototypes,they are just not practical. we need more room.
An exercise in style which will surely show up in a sci-fi tv series… the glitch is that the hydrogen economy is wholly dependent on the deals the automotive industry is making with the nuclear power industry to build hundreds of new nuclear power plants to make this hydrogen, to fuel their clean hydrogen economy. Nukes are neither clean nor green, so unless they can figure out a way to make hydrogen out of water directly in the engine, without having to develop an entirely new hydrogren fuel distribution network, a fuel which required either extreme pressurization or extreme temperature to remain stable, at great expenditure of additional energy… I see this entire H2 world they are promising you, as just another red herring to take your attention away from state of the art high density polymer li-ion batteries which could already now, we know, in the lab, take an electric car, hundreds of miles on one charge. Engineering degrees don’t make you real world savvy… Look at all the failed strategies and wasted billions in dead end technologies… H2 unless we figure out a way to split H20 inside the engine… with electromagnetic fields or lasers maybe, is a pipe dream, sorry to burst your hope bubble.
T-DOctober 17, 2007 at 3:17 pm
It’s cute, but I’d rather have the new FCX.
PinkRobeOctober 17, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Wow. Interesting concept – really ugly, though…
RichieOctober 17, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Windows don’t roll down. no mirrors..yeah… more work to do here.
Oh yeah, it has a joystick!!! I started out on the Atari 2600, so this is like a dream come true. Another point a collegue of mine brought up: without the steering wheel, psychologically you feel more vulnerable. It might actually help people adopt a more relaxed driving persona. Next question: is there a big red button on the joystick, and what would it do!?
I SAY GO GREEN……WALK!
IT looks like the car of tomorrow but unfortunatly it will remain solike most other things this day and age
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Cheers for Honda!
I’d buy one tomorrow if possible! What fun!
This vehicle is not as green as it gets. People seem to think hydrogen is ‘green’ just because all you get from the tailpipe is water. Well it’s not!
Hydrogen is mainly produced by steam reformation from fossil fuels, well thats not ‘green’ is it.
Producing hydrogen by the electrical method uses 6 times the amount of energy to produce it than you get out, that’s not ‘green’ either.
Too many people and politicians are duped by the hydrogen hype produced by the fuel companies who’s only interest is to keep using fossil fuels and their existing infostructure.
i really wish they would stop making these 2 person prototypes,they are just not practical. we need more room.
An exercise in style which will surely show up in a sci-fi tv series… the glitch is that the hydrogen economy is wholly dependent on the deals the automotive industry is making with the nuclear power industry to build hundreds of new nuclear power plants to make this hydrogen, to fuel their clean hydrogen economy. Nukes are neither clean nor green, so unless they can figure out a way to make hydrogen out of water directly in the engine, without having to develop an entirely new hydrogren fuel distribution network, a fuel which required either extreme pressurization or extreme temperature to remain stable, at great expenditure of additional energy… I see this entire H2 world they are promising you, as just another red herring to take your attention away from state of the art high density polymer li-ion batteries which could already now, we know, in the lab, take an electric car, hundreds of miles on one charge. Engineering degrees don’t make you real world savvy… Look at all the failed strategies and wasted billions in dead end technologies… H2 unless we figure out a way to split H20 inside the engine… with electromagnetic fields or lasers maybe, is a pipe dream, sorry to burst your hope bubble.
It’s cute, but I’d rather have the new FCX.
Wow. Interesting concept – really ugly, though…
Windows don’t roll down. no mirrors..yeah… more work to do here.
Oh yeah, it has a joystick!!! I started out on the Atari 2600, so this is like a dream come true. Another point a collegue of mine brought up: without the steering wheel, psychologically you feel more vulnerable. It might actually help people adopt a more relaxed driving persona. Next question: is there a big red button on the joystick, and what would it do!?
I would not be could dead driving in this….