Since my last post was on the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity being used as a “Pace Car” for the Bridgestone Indy Japan 300 mile I decided to go a little deeper to find out what is the Honda FCX Clarity. What makes the car work and how can I get one? The short answer to the “How and where can I get one?” question is that you can’t at least right now anyway. Like we mentioned in our earlier post the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity will be available for the U.S. market in summer 2008. Hopefully I will be able to “test drive” one when they first come out but from the looks of it the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity will only be leased to a select few customers at around $600.00/month in the southern California area. I personally want to see what all the hype is all about! AutoblogGreen another car enthusiast blog had a “first drive” way back in 2007 however the production model is sure have changed a little since then (but not likely). So here at Cellounge we are going to go over this car once again with a fine tooth comb. Maybe nothing has changed since 2007 for the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity however maybe everything has changed (again not likely). So let us take a look into the world of a hydrogen powered vehicle that was built from the ground up and may one day just change the world.

How does the FCX Clarity produce its energy?

In a “nutshell” the FCX Clarity takes the hydrogen in its fuel tank combines it with oxygen then takes the chemical energy it produces and converts the chemical energy to electricity which is evenly distributed throughout the vehicle and to the motor. Instead of an engine to make this car run a motor is used that is powered by the fuel stack which gives the FCX Clarity the power it needs to drive in “real world” conditions. Although Honda would like the energy from the chemical reaction in their fuel stack to be 100% efficient there are times when the car needs to take the energy produced by “hitting” the brakes and slowing down (decelerating) to give the car that added energy it sometimes will need and this is stored in the lithium ion battery. Most of the time the “extra” energy from braking and slowing down will not be needed but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Unlike most vehicles with gas powered engines the only byproduct this car will produce is water. We all know from chemistry class that this is basic science if you take two atoms of hydrogen and combine it with one atom of oxygen you will get water. The oxygen the FCX Clarity uses will be taken right out of the air so no extra oxygen tank is needed to produce the power to run the car.

*To find out exactly what a fuel cell is please visit Wikipedia for the “technical” aspects of what they are and how they work.

Efficiency

Put plainly the FCX Clarity is more fuel efficient than any other type of car due to the fact that a motor drives the car instead of an engine. Engines by nature have a ton of moving parts that all require energy and this makes engine power cars less efficient. So when it comes to energy efficiency the Honda FCX Clarity wins hands down versus those cars run by engines. In the FCX Clarity motor there are fewer parts that require energy to provide locomotion and this makes it more energy efficient. Honda has provided a nice graphic to illustrate this point which I have provided below. So please take a look at it I think you will be surprised because I know I was!

Features

When it comes to the exterior the FCX Clarity just looks sexy in my opinion plus it has curves and lines in all the right places. It is like it is the woman in red from the movie the “Matrix”. The Clarity looks red however it will only come in one color and that is what Honda calls “Star Garnet”. Basically the color of the vehicle is a derivative of the color red. The wheels are average looking but they are designed with ultra-lightweight 5-spoke forged aluminum for that added efficiency. This sedan gets around 270 miles per fill up with a hydrogen tank size of 171 liters (approx. 45 gallons). Top speed for the Clarity tops out around 160km/h (approx. 99 mph) which is not to fast but hey why would you want to go super fast in this car. Sit back and enjoy the quietness of the 100kW motor besides I doubt any speed demons are going to be the one to lease this car. I find it funny that I just described the power output of this car in kW’s instead of horsepower. Boy times are sure changing and hopefully one day there will be no gas powered vehicles on the road at all.

In the interior of the vehicle Honda has taken the initiative and reduced the dependence on oil even further with its use of bio-fabric materials which they say reduces CO2 even further compared to interior fabrics other cars use that are produced using petroleum. Ok this is not fair (minor whine ahead), the 2008 Honda Odyssey LX does not get climate controlled seats but the FCX Clarity does. What’s up with that? What in the world did I do by picking the basic model minivan from Honda for my ride? Having a lease price of $600.00/month Honda had better put some gadgets in this car or people will be paying for “new” technology and nothing else. But of course Honda comes through in the end and they have provided a plethora of gadgets. The 2009 Honda FCX Clarity comes with satellite navigation, a rearview camera, XM satellite radio, MP3/auxiliary port and would you believe more auxiliary ports in the glove box. Oh and that’s not all! This car also comes with USB ports in the glove box too. I guess for your pen drive full of music. Of course this is just speculation because Honda does not say what they are for anywhere on their website for the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity. Here is the funniest thing about this car you are going to forget that you are driving a hydrogen powered car when you get in to start driving. You are going to be more mesmerized by the 3-D dashboard, the room, the comfort, and gadgetry that the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity has in it. Then all of a sudden you will again remember what you are driving because you are going to stop at a red light and say to yourself “Is the car even running?” Oh yea speaking of the dash you must remember to keep your eyes on the road while driving because more than likely you be looking down all the time at the little ball in the middle of the dash that tells you the amount of energy the FCX Clarity is using. The ball changes colors from blue (low output) to amber colored (high output). Whatever the color of the ball is please remember to keep your eyes on the road! I do not believe you will want to explain to Honda that you got into an accident because you could not keep your eyes off the ball. So please keep your eyes off the ball! I know I know this is contrary to what you were taught in baseball but for safety’s sake please watch the road.

Performance wise this car works just like any other car and that is going to be a plus when this car goes “mainstream” all over the U.S. People want performance in their cars because no one wants to get stuck on a hill. We all know how embarrassing it would be to be pushing a “brand new” car up a hill. I think performance has been a hindrance to some of the hybrid cars currently on the market today. Although the FCX Clarity is not a hybrid people will still have those same preconceived notions about the FCX Clarity that they did for those hybrids. Another hindrance to past fuel cell cars has been the ability to start-up in freezing cold temperatures. The FCX does not have this problem it can start-up even with temperatures being as low as -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit). So the question I would like answered is why they are only going to make this car available to the southern California area? More than likely it has nothing to do with the temperature it is probably because of the fuel requirements of the FCX Clarity. You can’t get hydrogen at the local gas station as of yet but I am sure in the next 30 years the infrastructure that the oil companies have set up will be converted to a power source such hydrogen.

There is one thing that I have noticed about Honda since I have been driving “their” cars over the last four years and that is that they do not skimp on safety features. I must say this again it is refreshing to see a car manufacturer that puts all of its safety features in all of its trim levels. I first mentioned that opinion in my earlier post on the 2008 Honda Odyssey. Nothing bothers me more then to see a company provide safety features only for the “wealthy” and not the average middle class consumer who is their major purchasing base. In 2003 Honda introduced the Collision Mitigation Braking System™ (CMBS™) system and now they have added it to the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity. What this system does is it senses if the vehicle is about to be in a collision and then takes the appropriate action needed to avoid the collision. Now this does not mean that the car takes over the driving from the driver. What it means is the car will reduce speed, tighten up the seatbelt, and gives the driver visual and audio alerts to make sure the driver is aware of an oncoming collision. Now some people might be wondering what happens to the hydrogen fuel tank when the car is in a collision. Does it blow up? Does it catch on fire? The answer is “NO” to both of these questions! What the FCX does do is it shuts off the electrical output to the vehicle. So basically the whole system shuts off power to prevent those scenarios from ever happening. Another safety feature that I like and I think is a necessity on the hydrogen tank is a sensor that will detect if there is a leak. If a leak is detected the hydrogen tank valve will close itself off to prevent any further hydrogen from leaking out. Although leaks can happen the chances of them happening are negligible and are probably not even worth mentioning. It seems to me that Honda has thought of everything when it comes to safety on the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity. When you are fueling up your FCX Clarity Honda has added a “check valve” that prevents outside gases from entering your cars hydrogen tank and hydrogen from spitting out of your car.

At the beginning of this article I stated that I was going to go through everything with a fine tooth comb. When I began writing this I knew not much if anything had changed since the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November 2007. Although I felt that it was necessary and worth it to look through all the specifications one more time because it gave me a better understanding of the technology that the engineers of the FCX designed to make this one of “hottest” future cars. Not since the Ford Model T has a car had the potential to revolutionize an entire industry like the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity. The last thing that I will mention is that Honda is also designing a way for people to fuel up their Honda FCX Clarity’s at home which a whole article in itself.