The Honda FCX Clarity is hugely important because it represents an honest to goodness fuel-cell vehicle that is going to actually be built and sold in 2008. The significance of a vehicle that spits water out of its exhaust instead of carbon is lost on virtually nobody, and it looks like Honda will be the first out of the gate. Honda has created a clever commercial to show how important its new accomplishment is, and it involves a bunch of thugs shooting it out with water guns. It's good stuff, and you can view it by clicking the read link below.
[Source: YouTube]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Hooper @ Nov 18th 2007 12:29PM
Leased, not sold.
info @ Nov 18th 2007 1:32PM
Lease or sell, it really doesn't matter. This car at THIS time is more of an advertising plot rather than anything else. Fuel cell powered cars or other hydrogen powered vehicles are of no consequence as long as there is no reasonable infrastructure to obtain the necessary hydrogen to run the cars. Besides, as far as leasing a hydrogen powered car, didn't BMW beat Honda to it?
Hooper @ Nov 18th 2007 2:15PM
It's not the first hydrogen-fueled motor vehicle made available to consumers, but it is the first fuel-cell-powered vehicle to be made available to consumers.
Hooper @ Nov 18th 2007 2:18PM
Whoops! I forgot about that GM fuel-cell-powered SUV, so it's not the first of that kind, either.
Temple @ Nov 19th 2007 12:58AM
Honda had the previous FCX available for lease as well; which was actually the first back in 2002 (concept dating back to 1999). GM did the hydrogen Sequel, Ford had the Focus, and BMW the hydrogen 7 for lease a over a year ago.
However, this new FX clarity isn't just another leased prototype. You won't have a engineer follow you around and the lease is going to be more then just a few handful of people. the scale is significantly different then previous efforts.
Spaceweasel @ Nov 18th 2007 12:40PM
This ad cracked me up. It looks like they had a ton of fun making it.
JDP @ Nov 18th 2007 1:23PM
Forgive me if i'm wrong, but isn't "clean water vapor" actually the world's most prevalent greenhouse gas? It is, according to my environmental studies textbook.
lintsniffer @ Nov 18th 2007 1:48PM
Wow, we have a winner.
Maybe you could lend your textbook to the UN council on climate change?
Hooper @ Nov 18th 2007 2:28PM
But, I presume, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere has remained more or less constant for God knows how long (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cycle — I wonder how the potential adoption of hydrogen-fueled vehicles in mass quantities might affect the climate, though). On the other hand, the carbon in the carbon dioxide generated by humankind's activities comes from underground and doesn't get returned there.
Samurai Jack @ Nov 18th 2007 2:32PM
Yup, you're right. Of course this isn't a difficult problem to solve. Simply contain the water vapor long enough for it to cool a few degrees. Liquid water is much less of a problem--unless you're on the motorcycle behind the fuel cell powered lorry.
why not the LS2LS7? @ Nov 18th 2007 6:59PM
Water vapor isn't necessarily warm. You're thinking of steam. Steam is invisible. Water vapor is visible and is liquid water suspended in air.
Surely you've gone outside on a foggy day and seen cold water vapor all around you?
H20 is a huge greenhouse gas, but I don't know if it's any more dangerous than CO2 from renewable sources (or cow farts). H2O cycles around throughout the year, we aren't unlocking new H2O from the crust.
Turbofrog @ Nov 18th 2007 7:25PM
There's no reason to be concerned about the water vapour emitted, at least not compared to existing engine emissions, which already contain H20 as one of the combustion products.
1 C8H18 + 25 O2= 8 CO2 + 9 H2O is the combustion reaction for octane.
nonsense @ Nov 18th 2007 7:51PM
Adding water vapor to the atmosphere is completely harmless. We have a lovely mechanism know as rain which keeps the concentration of water vapor in the atmosphere in check. CO2 doesn't just precipitate out when it reaches a high enough concentration.
kundo @ Nov 18th 2007 10:30PM
Yes. it is the most PREVALENT greenhouse gas. What's your point? Prevalence doesn't equal harmful, it just means there's a lot of it. CO2 is harmful to the environment and causes heat retention. Water vapor is what clouds are made of. Then the clouds return water to the earth's surface. Do only 3 year olds and conspiracy theorists read autoblog?
sw @ Nov 18th 2007 10:37PM
Haha, wonder if your textbook also has something on "Rain"
Reality Check @ Nov 18th 2007 1:32PM
Fuel-cell cars get Hydrogen from fossil energy so the CO2 that it isn't produced from the tail pipe is just released during the conversion. Untill they produce Hydrogen from wind, solar, or nuclear power plants through electic conversion we are just fooling ourselves. But it will be a perfect power source once they do use renewable energy to produce it. And we are only a few nuclear plants away from gas that we import. Just think of the money that we would have in our country if we did produce all of our own energy.
porschedevotee @ Nov 18th 2007 5:41PM
They are putting in hydrogen stations which receive their hydrogen from renewable sources. It was on AutoblogGreen:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/11/15/shell-installs-a-hydrogen-fuel-station-in-white-plains/
It would be nice if more people realized that plug-ins and hydrogen cars have a wide variety of fuel sources available. If you're using a gas or diesel powered car, there's really only one way to get it, and it's a finite amount. It's not like we'll run out of sunshine or wind anytime soon... score one for the renewables! :)
wwhit710 @ Nov 18th 2007 2:16PM
Sorry, but this is no where NEAR the first leased fuel cell vehicle on the market.
While this following link may or may not represent the first, it certainly predates the one listed in your article.
http://www.motortrend.com/features/auto_news/112_news051028_ford_focus
Sean Flanagan @ Nov 19th 2007 9:43AM
FTA: "Area residents will notice the Focus Fuel Cell vehicles in their neighborhoods as city employees drive the vehicles for city business or, in Taylor , as the water department travels to read meters."
City employees do not the public make. This is the first fuel cell vehicle available for the average Joe to lease. All previous fuel cell vehicles on public roads were either part of a testing program, offered by invitation only, part of a fleet, or a combination thereof.
wwhit710 @ Nov 19th 2007 12:45PM
$600 per month lease, with all included repair costs, does not make it available to the "average joe" either. The only difference between the two, other than 3 years later, is how it is being marketed.
Go ahead and believe this is anything more than a technology test if you would like. But you would be wrong.