Comments on: Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell car

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 06:40:46 +0000

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for alternative fuels – for reasons not the least of which, cars will not survive without them. but if there’s a million+ cars in any given city, emitting water vapor all day every day, won’t that have an effect on weather patterns?

By: slivia

slivia — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:55:17 +0000

they keep it as 3.5l/100km because no-one would really understand if they put it as kg/100kg or something like that.

By: Ebby

Ebby — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:12:58 +0000

If they are reasonably priced and you could fill them with filtered tap water, no one would buy anything else!!

By: Ebby

Ebby — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:10:38 +0000

I would just like to know when the average bloke in the street can get his hands on one of these? It’s about time we did something about these oil parasites holding the world to ransom!

By: TP

TP — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:04:32 +0000

Im not to sure about the battery setup, there is a huge usage of energy to produce them. The next task is to create non CO2 mer\thods of creating hydrogen.

By: David

David — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:32:24 +0000

MPG or Litres per 100km? Hydrogen is liquid above a certain pressure once this pressure is reached or exceeded, more pressure doesn’t mean more atoms in the bucket. I would logically assume the Gallons or Litres refer to the element as a liquid at the required pressure. Auto LPG is sold as liquid litres so logically hydrogen can be refered to as liquid litres as well.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:14:52 +0000

i wondered that too astro boy, so I looked up the honda press release. The hydrogen tank doesn’t store the hydrogen as liquid as cooling it to 20K would be impractical, instead the hydrogen is stored at 5000 psi, so that 171 litre tank can store 5 kg of hydrogen, which is a lot for hydrogen gas.

The fuel consumption figure they use is to show the equivalent fuel consumption of a petrol engine if it was as efficient and as powerful as the FCX drivetrain. In other words, its Honda showing off that the fuel cell/electric motor combination is more efficient than the equivalent petrol engine. Trusty ol’ wikipedia says that the new FCX is 60% efficient compared to the 20-25% energy efficiency of the average internal combustion engine.

By: Astro Boy

Astro Boy — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:47:11 +0000

Exactly! what do they mean in litres per 100km, the figures can change with different pressures of the hydrogen in the tank. Thats why it should be measured in kilograms per 100km.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:44:27 +0000

“This next generation FCX Clarity boasts significant improvements over its predecessor. This includes a 20-percent increase in fuel economy equivalent to 68mpg or roughly 3.5-litres per 100km, and a 30-percent increase in range to 435km.”

I don’t get it… if it’s a hydrogen powered car what exactly are we talking about when we say 3.5litres per 100km?!

By: Astro Boy

Astro Boy — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:53:24 +0000

Hmm yeah me too i dont like their new chromed mo style. Looks crap. It should be like the civic hatch with its H badge behind the glass, looks space age. This looks ummm american.

By: arsenalroc

arsenalroc — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:35:50 +0000

ahh thanks for the info
it would very interesting to drive this car… i would assume its dead silent

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 05:07:08 +0000

I assume the power delivery will be just like all electrics, huge torque at low motor rpm that linearly decreases as revs increase, but with decent gearing (CVT works really well for electrics) you can keep on that huge torque at low rpm. As for power generation, current fuel cells don’t experience a voltage drop like current batteries do when they approach depletion, so long as you can pump in the hydrogen and oxygen in the power production remains constant until the it just stops.

By: arsenalroc

arsenalroc — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 04:36:16 +0000

its good seeing a major manufacturer come out with a car like this.. i am curious are the power delivery though…will it be linear all the way?

By: Myke

Myke — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:40:35 +0000

Not a fan of Honda’s new smiley face front design. Although this isn’t as bad as the CR-V, but way too much chrome.