Honda launches zero emissions car on a limited basis
Honda announced that its first production run of a zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell car rolled off the assembly line yesterday. The FCX Clarity will run on only hydrogen and electricity, does not emit any greenhouse gases and is two times more energy efficient than traditional gas-electric hybrids.
While the climate effects of the FCX Clarity are extremely limited, so is the availability of the car. Honda is currently only leasing a “few dozen” cars in California and plans to increase that number to only around 200 within the year. (Although a fall launch in Japan is also planned.)
One of the major problems is, of course, the availability of hydrogen filling stations. A quick review of this government resource shows that there are only 13 hydrogen filling stations within 25 miles of the (super progressive) City of Santa Monica and only 24 stations within 100 miles. Whether widespread hydrogen distribution will be built is obviously a major issue that needs to be addressed before hydrogen cars can provide a practical alternative to the current options.
[Thanks to reader Marsoner for this story tip.]
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Comments
One Comment on Honda launches zero emissions car on a limited basis
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Marius on
Tue, 17th Jun 2008 11:50 am
This sounds like an exciting advancement in the world of low emission vehicles. I live in Santa Monica and called Honda to get on the waiting list for this car. They said they have a rep in Japan right now getting more details on how many cars they will ship to the United States. Of course, the downside is the limited amount of filling stations. Also, i have no idea how much it costs to fill the tank with Hydrogen fuel. Does anyone know how much hydrogen fuel costs in comparison with regular gas?
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