EDTA Conference: Q&A with Honda VP Edward Cohen

Take a million dollar Honda FCX prototype, not the newest version but a recent FCX that Honda has been testing for the past few years. This car has years of high-tech research and plenty of hydrogen technology under the hood. You can drive it, sure, but what about turning it into a recording studio? That's what seemed like a good idea when I met with Honda North America vice president for government & industry relations Edward Cohen outside the EDTA Conference Hotel earlier today. We spend about 15 minutes sitting in the FCX and we talked about how the recent election will affect electric car technology, the 60,000 unit per manufacturer limit for the maximum tax credits on hybrids, how the cost of a gallon of gasoline affects customer behavior and society at large and more. You can listen to our talk here (MP3 format, about 4 MB). The little bit of outside sound you hear in the background is not a hole somewhere in the FCX's body, but the result of a window being open. Even high-tech cars get stuffy when they're all sealed up.