Making its North American debut at NAIAS after its unveiling at the Tokyo Motor Show just four months ago, Autoblog's Erin Mays reports that the extreme cab-forward FCX hydrogen fuel cell concept is now set for production.
American Honda Motor announced at NAIAS Sunday that it will begin production in Japan of its next generation FCX hydrogen fuel cell vehicle in just three or four years. The production car is said to closely resemble the FCX concept vehicle shown above.
The design of the FCX makes the most of the packaging advantages of Honda's fuel cell powertrain, which allows designers a low floor, low center of gravity, and plenty of cabin space.
More after the jump.
Honda's V Flow fuel cell stack fits within the car's central tunnel and puts out 100kw of power. The powertrain features three motors, one in the front and a smaller unit in each rear wheel. The concept car can store sufficient hydrogen to give a cruising range of 350 miles.
The FCX concept is intended to be paired with the Home Energy Station, a residential energy system that supplies hydrogen fuel for the vehicle, as well as heat and electricity for the home.
Complete information on the FCX concept is available here.
[Source: American Honda]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
R? @ Jan 10th 2006 10:36AM
Great desing! Now, find a clean way to produce hydrogen...
Jason E. Rist @ Jan 10th 2006 10:37AM
Did they come up with an ingenious way of creating hydrogen?
Scott @ Jan 10th 2006 10:40AM
If natural gas prices come down or stabilize this would be great. Or like #1 said find a cleaner better way to produce hydrogen.
JZeke @ Jan 10th 2006 10:53AM
Thats awesome! Supercar for the family, making good on the dream of the Chrysler Portofino showcar from 1990!
Sully @ Jan 10th 2006 10:55AM
Dodge Intrepid fans everywhere rejoice!
DJ @ Jan 10th 2006 11:20AM
If you link to Honda's website, they diagram the process for a
home-based hydrogen station. Natural gas or LP is fed into a
converter to produce hydrogen for your car and it's also fed to an
inverter to produce electricity and heat for your home. Given the
infrastructure costs of setting up a home system, the exponential
increase in natural gas prices over the past two years and the
inherent loss of efficiency in any conversion process, it's hard to
see the economic justification of such a car and system. Sure, it'll
appeal to very wealthy environmental types at first and hopefully the
costs will drop dramatically with mass production. But until our
government allows for additional natural gas exploration and
production, the supply bottleneck is only going to get worse.
FX Viewer @ Jan 10th 2006 11:24AM
Great Design??? Its a VERY old design like Sully said, Intrepidness. UGH!!! Excuse me while I go hurl my lunch down the toilet.
s @ Jan 10th 2006 12:18PM
This vehicle will not look like an Intrepid. If you have seen the "Sport4" concept which looks like a TSX / Euro Accord just like this FCX concept does too.
jb @ Jan 10th 2006 12:31PM
what would happen to the hydrogen filled tanks if it got rear ended by an excursion?
ron @ Jan 10th 2006 2:15PM
This is what the next generation of INTREPID should have looked like!!! I like the look of the Chrysler 300-based products, but Dodge could have/should have stayed with this idea and let Chrysler have the current big box design!
Nick @ Jan 10th 2006 2:34PM
I liked it better when Dodge did it 10 year's ago. Of course then it was a hybrid powertrain, not fuel cell. And Dodge called it the ESX, not the FCX. Here's a link:
http://encarta.msn.com/media_461540063_761580732_-1_1/Dodge_Intrepid_ESX_Concept_Vehicle.html
I liked it better when Dodge did it 10 year's ago. Of course then it was a hybrid powertrain, not fuel cell. And Dodge called it the ESX, not the FCX. Here's a link:
http://encarta.msn.com/media_461540063_761580732_-1_1/Dodge_Intrepid_ESX_Concept_Vehicle.html
Joe B @ Jan 10th 2006 10:31PM
Ultra clean hydrogen can be produced through electrolyse using hydro generating facilities, making the hydrogen in off peak hours, thereby increasing the efficiency of the power plants. Geo thermal generating plants can do the same. Wind farms, photo voltaic farms add to the list. CO2 neutral processes using alchohol is another solution to strip hydrogen from.
Massive amounts of hydrogen could be produced using nuclear power plants which do not polute the atmosphere but have a spent fuel waste problem.
Hydrogen could be mixed with natural gas so exhisting pipe distribution systems can be used. This enriched natural gas can be easily stripped of it's hydrogen content and stored and distributed locally.
roadside observer @ Jan 10th 2006 11:12PM
Indeed it borrows rather heavily from the Intrepid ESX concept, but I like it. A very clean design. Wish I could say that hydrogen was readily available.
Antonio @ Jan 11th 2006 3:17AM
Is that a cross between a 300C, dodge intrepid and a fake 4 door lambo from the sides. What were they thinking.
SKIP @ Jan 11th 2006 8:33PM
MY DOG HAS FLEES
SKIP @ Jan 11th 2006 8:34PM
MY DOG HAS FLEES!
SKIP @ Jan 11th 2006 8:36PM
FLEAS! SORRY
Tom Designboston @ Jan 25th 2006 11:36PM
Remi, I'm with you. Terrific design solution, maximizing on having no engine/drivetrain front-end box. Slippery, sleek and sexy. This is good work, congratulations to the Japanese for not stealing some other design per usual. and, if you're going to modify a design, they picked a good one:
http://www.lambocars.com/archive/highres/porto6.htm