Road Test
First Drive: 2009 Honda FCX Clarity
Honda's Fuel-Cell Electric Car Is No Trailer Queen
The high-pitched whine as the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity's "engine" spools up is a sound as futuristic as any to be heard aboard the Millennium Falcon. Except the Star Wars ship is all fiction and movie magic. The FCX Clarity is all fact. The future — green, fuel-efficient and petroleum-free — is here.
The whine, thrilling in its own way as the scream of a Formula 1 engine although not nearly so loud, is the song of the compressor pumping air into the Clarity's fuel-cell stack. There, the air mixes with hydrogen gas flowing from the car's cylindrical fuel tank, where it's stored at 5,000 psi. The compressed air and hydrogen mix in the fuel cell and flow through a gas-permeable membrane coated with a platinum catalyst.
The result — Shazzam! — is electricity, the stuff that powers this deep garnet-red sedan as it swoops silently along the highway, spilling a drizzle of distilled water (and nothing else) from its tailpipe.
If we sound like converts, we are. Sign us up for the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity. We want one.
Leasing Starts in Summer '08
General Motors is about to launch a test fleet of 100 Chevrolet Equinox SUVs powered by GM's own hydrogen fuel-cell technology, and a host of carmakers including Chrysler, Daimler, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen have prototype fuel-cell vehicles under study in a variety of research projects.
Honda, though, has gone beyond the usual prototypes and test mules.
The 2009 Honda FCX Clarity, a strikingly sculpted four-place sedan riding on an all-new platform, is a production-ready member of the Honda lineup, scheduled for a limited leasing program in mid-2008.
Lease terms, which include maintenance and insurance, will be for three years at $600 per month. And the car will be available only to Southern California residents who live near existing hydrogen fuel-pump facilities in Irvine, Torrance and Santa Monica. The fuel costs about $5 per gallon right now, but since the Clarity gets 68 mpg, filling the tank is still a bargain.
If you're interested in leasing one — and can qualify to make the lease payments — sign up at the FCX Clarity Web site.
A (Quiet) Blast To Drive
Honda unveiled the car at the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show and gave us the chance to drive one of two working preproduction models a few days later.
The drive was all too short, just 24.5 miles in a cruise along Pacific Coast Highway from Santa Monica to Malibu, then a short jog up Malibu Canyon Road into the Santa Monica Mountains to experience a hill climb and a few gentle twisties. We were relegated to a passenger seat on the trip back.
What we can report from that experience is that the FCX Clarity is a fully functioning Honda. It's well-balanced, enjoyable but not challenging to drive, and so comfortable that it's almost a little luxurious.
Sachito Fujimoto, the senior chief engineer at Honda R&D who leads the FCX's technical team, tells us that his staff is still working on the compressor whine, trying to deaden it completely. We think that would be a shame, as this sound is one of the few things about the driving experience that lets you know you are in a fuel-cell car. Otherwise, the FCX is just a really quiet Honda, since there's not even much wind noise at highway speeds.
Electrifying Performance
Fuel-cell cars are electric cars, loaded with low-end grunt. The Clarity won't snap your head back when you stuff your foot to the floor, but it moves out smartly just the same.
The electric motor delivers the equivalent of 134 horsepower and 189 pound-feet of torque when it's spinning at 13,500 rpm, and peak torque is available between zero and 20 mph. This is sufficient power to give the Clarity off-the-line acceleration that pushes you firmly back into the seat.
Honda says the power plant, fed with 100 kilowatts of electricity from the fuel cell, will propel the midsize sedan from zero to 60 mph in about 9.2 seconds — the same time recorded by the similarly sized 2008 Honda Accord sedan equipped with its 177-hp 2.4-liter inline-4.
Yet we thought the FCX felt faster than this, and when we made a comment, someone from Honda quietly confirmed that the company is "conservative" in citing acceleration numbers. We didn't put a stopwatch to the FCX Clarity, but would guess that we got to 60 mph in just under 9 seconds.
We also weren't able to test Honda's claim that the Clarity will achieve 100 mph, but 77 mph did come up on the speedometer before prudence dictated we try out the regenerative braking system. It works just fine, and also pumps almost 60 percent of the car's deceleration energy back into the lithium-ion battery pack that supplements the fuel cell's output when extra acceleration power is needed.
It Drives Like a Car
The ride in the Clarity on the Coast Highway is smooth and even a little cushy, as the double-wishbone independent suspension has been tuned for comfort, not for sport. The front-wheel-drive sedan has its 3,582 pounds apportioned 55 percent to the front and 45 percent to the rear, just like a conventional Accord.
That slightly front-heavy load means the hard-compound, low-rolling-resistance 215/55R16 tires have to work pretty hard, and it's no surprise that the FCX developed a bit of understeer when we hit the tighter turns on Malibu Canyon Road.
The FCX achieves the equivalent of 68 mpg from its hydrogen fuel cell. Since a kilogram of gaseous hydrogen fuel is roughly equivalent to a gallon of gasoline, this Honda's 4.1-kg tank delivers a cruising range of 270 miles with 0.2 kg of fuel in reserve.
Design Freed From Convention
Although it still looks like a car, there's no denying Honda's claim that the Clarity's styling provides a peek at the future. "We needed people to see what we could achieve with this new technology just by looking at the car," says exterior designer Masura Hasagawa.
Freed from the constraints of a bulky gas engine and transmission, Hasagawa penned a car that's set apart from the crowd by an extremely short nose with a steeply raked A-pillar that begins rising from the hood at the apex of the front wheel cutout. The long, glassed-in cabin is made dramatic by powerful fender and character lines.
Interior Honda designer Yozo Tagaki's four-place "futuristic cocoon" within the car is light and bright. The upholstery for the seats, door panels, flooring and ceiling is a recyclable, Honda-developed fabric made from fermented corn.
The FCX's instrumentation glows an angry amber to signify poor economy during heavy acceleration, then shrinks a little and turns yellow during average fuel consumption periods, and finally shrinks a bit more and glows bright electric-blue to signify good economy.
Vertical Stack Boosts Performance
The Clarity's soul is the third generation of Honda's fuel-cell stack. With mind-boggling weight and size reductions, revolutionary new packaging, substantial improvements in durability and operating range and an impressive 66.6 percent power increase, the all-new system is ready for prime time. The new 100-kilowatt fuel-cell stack is 65 percent smaller than that in the 2005 FCX prototype.
The upright rectangular shape of the Clarity's vertical fuel-cell stack is what makes it possible to package it in a sedan. The vertical arrangement also promotes more efficient stack cooling, electricity generation and cold-weather operation.
Because the cells are vertical, the water that collects on their surfaces drains down, so it can't freeze and prevent the permeable membranes from operating in frigid weather. As a result, the Clarity can operate at temperatures as low as minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit.
Juice from the fuel-cell stack flows to the 288-volt, lithium-ion battery pack or to the electric motor-gearbox mounted transversely under the Clarity's hood. The battery pack is half the size of the ultra-capacitor that stored electrical power in the '05 model.
The entire power plant is 397 pounds lighter and 45 percent smaller than the system in the previous-generation FCX, which was built on the platform of a Japanese-market, two-door minivan.
Not for Sale
Honda won't be selling the Clarity, at least not in this initial iteration, because it is largely hand-assembled and stuffed with hideously expensive technology. The company won't discuss the cost of each vehicle, but nobody on the Clarity team blinks when it's suggested that Honda would have to charge at least $1 million apiece just to break even on the immediate production costs.
Because it will cost about $15 billion to replicate the existing nationwide retail gasoline fueling system for hydrogen and nobody seems to be in a rush to spend that kind of money, Honda is working with partner Plug Power Inc. on a home hydrogen filling station.
Honda won't disclose how many of the new cars it intends to build and lease, but expect it to be somewhere between 100 and 200, based on hints that have been dropped by various members of the carmaker's staff. Real people will get some, but don't be surprised to see a few politicians, entertainment figures and social lions with a 2009 Honda FCX Clarity.
Here's hoping that there are fewer of the latter than the former. If environmentally sensible, advanced-technology vehicles are ever to make it to the mainstream, they've got to be accepted by all the working stiffs who share those 5-mph morning commutes.
Edmunds attended a manufacturer-sponsored event, to which selected members of the press were invited, to facilitate this report.
The whine, thrilling in its own way as the scream of a Formula 1 engine although not nearly so loud, is the song of the compressor pumping air into the Clarity's fuel-cell stack. There, the air mixes with hydrogen gas flowing from the car's cylindrical fuel tank, where it's stored at 5,000 psi. The compressed air and hydrogen mix in the fuel cell and flow through a gas-permeable membrane coated with a platinum catalyst.
The result — Shazzam! — is electricity, the stuff that powers this deep garnet-red sedan as it swoops silently along the highway, spilling a drizzle of distilled water (and nothing else) from its tailpipe.
If we sound like converts, we are. Sign us up for the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity. We want one.
Leasing Starts in Summer '08
General Motors is about to launch a test fleet of 100 Chevrolet Equinox SUVs powered by GM's own hydrogen fuel-cell technology, and a host of carmakers including Chrysler, Daimler, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen have prototype fuel-cell vehicles under study in a variety of research projects.
Honda, though, has gone beyond the usual prototypes and test mules.
The 2009 Honda FCX Clarity, a strikingly sculpted four-place sedan riding on an all-new platform, is a production-ready member of the Honda lineup, scheduled for a limited leasing program in mid-2008.
Lease terms, which include maintenance and insurance, will be for three years at $600 per month. And the car will be available only to Southern California residents who live near existing hydrogen fuel-pump facilities in Irvine, Torrance and Santa Monica. The fuel costs about $5 per gallon right now, but since the Clarity gets 68 mpg, filling the tank is still a bargain.
If you're interested in leasing one — and can qualify to make the lease payments — sign up at the FCX Clarity Web site.
A (Quiet) Blast To Drive
Honda unveiled the car at the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show and gave us the chance to drive one of two working preproduction models a few days later.
The drive was all too short, just 24.5 miles in a cruise along Pacific Coast Highway from Santa Monica to Malibu, then a short jog up Malibu Canyon Road into the Santa Monica Mountains to experience a hill climb and a few gentle twisties. We were relegated to a passenger seat on the trip back.
What we can report from that experience is that the FCX Clarity is a fully functioning Honda. It's well-balanced, enjoyable but not challenging to drive, and so comfortable that it's almost a little luxurious.
Sachito Fujimoto, the senior chief engineer at Honda R&D who leads the FCX's technical team, tells us that his staff is still working on the compressor whine, trying to deaden it completely. We think that would be a shame, as this sound is one of the few things about the driving experience that lets you know you are in a fuel-cell car. Otherwise, the FCX is just a really quiet Honda, since there's not even much wind noise at highway speeds.
Electrifying Performance
Fuel-cell cars are electric cars, loaded with low-end grunt. The Clarity won't snap your head back when you stuff your foot to the floor, but it moves out smartly just the same.
The electric motor delivers the equivalent of 134 horsepower and 189 pound-feet of torque when it's spinning at 13,500 rpm, and peak torque is available between zero and 20 mph. This is sufficient power to give the Clarity off-the-line acceleration that pushes you firmly back into the seat.
Honda says the power plant, fed with 100 kilowatts of electricity from the fuel cell, will propel the midsize sedan from zero to 60 mph in about 9.2 seconds — the same time recorded by the similarly sized 2008 Honda Accord sedan equipped with its 177-hp 2.4-liter inline-4.
Yet we thought the FCX felt faster than this, and when we made a comment, someone from Honda quietly confirmed that the company is "conservative" in citing acceleration numbers. We didn't put a stopwatch to the FCX Clarity, but would guess that we got to 60 mph in just under 9 seconds.
We also weren't able to test Honda's claim that the Clarity will achieve 100 mph, but 77 mph did come up on the speedometer before prudence dictated we try out the regenerative braking system. It works just fine, and also pumps almost 60 percent of the car's deceleration energy back into the lithium-ion battery pack that supplements the fuel cell's output when extra acceleration power is needed.
It Drives Like a Car
The ride in the Clarity on the Coast Highway is smooth and even a little cushy, as the double-wishbone independent suspension has been tuned for comfort, not for sport. The front-wheel-drive sedan has its 3,582 pounds apportioned 55 percent to the front and 45 percent to the rear, just like a conventional Accord.
That slightly front-heavy load means the hard-compound, low-rolling-resistance 215/55R16 tires have to work pretty hard, and it's no surprise that the FCX developed a bit of understeer when we hit the tighter turns on Malibu Canyon Road.
The FCX achieves the equivalent of 68 mpg from its hydrogen fuel cell. Since a kilogram of gaseous hydrogen fuel is roughly equivalent to a gallon of gasoline, this Honda's 4.1-kg tank delivers a cruising range of 270 miles with 0.2 kg of fuel in reserve.
Design Freed From Convention
Although it still looks like a car, there's no denying Honda's claim that the Clarity's styling provides a peek at the future. "We needed people to see what we could achieve with this new technology just by looking at the car," says exterior designer Masura Hasagawa.
Freed from the constraints of a bulky gas engine and transmission, Hasagawa penned a car that's set apart from the crowd by an extremely short nose with a steeply raked A-pillar that begins rising from the hood at the apex of the front wheel cutout. The long, glassed-in cabin is made dramatic by powerful fender and character lines.
Interior Honda designer Yozo Tagaki's four-place "futuristic cocoon" within the car is light and bright. The upholstery for the seats, door panels, flooring and ceiling is a recyclable, Honda-developed fabric made from fermented corn.
The FCX's instrumentation glows an angry amber to signify poor economy during heavy acceleration, then shrinks a little and turns yellow during average fuel consumption periods, and finally shrinks a bit more and glows bright electric-blue to signify good economy.
Vertical Stack Boosts Performance
The Clarity's soul is the third generation of Honda's fuel-cell stack. With mind-boggling weight and size reductions, revolutionary new packaging, substantial improvements in durability and operating range and an impressive 66.6 percent power increase, the all-new system is ready for prime time. The new 100-kilowatt fuel-cell stack is 65 percent smaller than that in the 2005 FCX prototype.
The upright rectangular shape of the Clarity's vertical fuel-cell stack is what makes it possible to package it in a sedan. The vertical arrangement also promotes more efficient stack cooling, electricity generation and cold-weather operation.
Because the cells are vertical, the water that collects on their surfaces drains down, so it can't freeze and prevent the permeable membranes from operating in frigid weather. As a result, the Clarity can operate at temperatures as low as minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit.
Juice from the fuel-cell stack flows to the 288-volt, lithium-ion battery pack or to the electric motor-gearbox mounted transversely under the Clarity's hood. The battery pack is half the size of the ultra-capacitor that stored electrical power in the '05 model.
The entire power plant is 397 pounds lighter and 45 percent smaller than the system in the previous-generation FCX, which was built on the platform of a Japanese-market, two-door minivan.
Not for Sale
Honda won't be selling the Clarity, at least not in this initial iteration, because it is largely hand-assembled and stuffed with hideously expensive technology. The company won't discuss the cost of each vehicle, but nobody on the Clarity team blinks when it's suggested that Honda would have to charge at least $1 million apiece just to break even on the immediate production costs.
Because it will cost about $15 billion to replicate the existing nationwide retail gasoline fueling system for hydrogen and nobody seems to be in a rush to spend that kind of money, Honda is working with partner Plug Power Inc. on a home hydrogen filling station.
Honda won't disclose how many of the new cars it intends to build and lease, but expect it to be somewhere between 100 and 200, based on hints that have been dropped by various members of the carmaker's staff. Real people will get some, but don't be surprised to see a few politicians, entertainment figures and social lions with a 2009 Honda FCX Clarity.
Here's hoping that there are fewer of the latter than the former. If environmentally sensible, advanced-technology vehicles are ever to make it to the mainstream, they've got to be accepted by all the working stiffs who share those 5-mph morning commutes.
Edmunds attended a manufacturer-sponsored event, to which selected members of the press were invited, to facilitate this report.
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