From the L.A. Auto Show, Cars.com's Joe Wiesenfelder takes a look at Honda's FCX Clarity concept car.
Transcript
Hi I'm Joe Wiesenfelder with Cars.com standing next to a modern marvel, it's the Honda FCX Clarity. It is the first fuel cell electric vehicle that's been built from the ground up as a fuel cell car.
Honda is leasing a hundred of these cars at $600 dollars a month to people in the Los Angeles area where there are the most hydrogen refueling stations. The idea is to find out what it's like for people to live with these cars, and they're doing it in a grand scale. The FCX Clarity looks actually a lot like the new Accord, in front though the chrome has a little bit of a Volkswagen touch it seems. You can see this little out-cropping along the lights which is a lot like the Civic Coup actually. And a nice element that would look good on any kind of car the chrome strip that goes along the windows actually comes out onto the mirror. Now if you saw the FCX concept car that came out last year, this is based on it. It looks a little smaller, but mainly some of the sides have been brought in, tucked in. The way this tapers in the back is for aerodynamics, it's similar to what you might have seen on the Honda Insight. Bringing this in like so prevents too much of a vacuum being created behind the car as its moving down the road, saves fuel. Now the previous generation fuel cell vehicle also called the FCX, was based on an electric car. So the short-coming was they had to put a hydrogen gas tank where one wasn't meant to go, and that ended up leaving you very little room for storage. Cars made for gas engines are made for gasoline tanks which aren't the same shape and size as a pressurized hydrogen gas tank. That's why the old ones didn't have the amount of room in the trunk that the FCX Clarity has. There's a lot of space in the trunk itself and in a bin underneath it. The significance of this being the first car made as a fuel cell electric car is that they were able to put components in different places than they would in a gasoline car. For example, fuel cells here in the center and the electric motor is in the front and it gives you a lot more space in the cabin. It's a midsize car but the interior feels at least midsize maybe even a little larger. As you can see not only the trunk is roomy the backseat is roomy because the hydrogen tank is put in the optimal location. Just like a regular car. Until you get here. This is where you fill with compressed hydrogen. Again, not many places to do that in this country, most of them are in California and that's why the test is going on here. So hydrogen goes to the fuel cell and mixes with oxygen. Hydrogen, oxygen, H2O, all you get is a little heat and water vapor. But remember, you had to get the hydrogen somewhere, and that requires some kind of energy and probably some kind of pollution somewhere. The reality is in the future there will probably be lots of different types of alternate fuels and propulsion, if fuel cell's one of them, I suspect that Honda will be in the lead because they are the first to build a car strictly for fuel cell. <v Narrator>For additional information on this car or any other go to cars.com and our blog Kicking Tires.
