Future of the Car: Honda FCX Clarity

Last May, Senior Engineer Gabe Shenhar and I drove a Honda FCX concept car, gaining an early impression of this fuel-cell-powered sedan. I got behind the wheel at the recent Consumer Reports Future of the Car event and drove the production model at modest speeds around the Auto Test Center grounds. 

The production car, now called the FCX Clarity, is available to select customers in Southern California for lease and costs $600 a month. So far, Honda has delivered just a handful of them, though it has announced plans to move approximately 200 to customers in the first three years of production.

The FCX Clarity uses a 100 kW fuel cell mounted vertically like a small suitcase between the front seats. A fuel cell – once known as a chemical battery – makes electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen. It produces no pollution; slight water vapor comes from the tailpipe.

A 5,000-psi hydrogen tank filled with 4 kg of hydrogen gives it a range of more than 260 miles, according to Honda. Like other modern fuel-cell cars, it also uses a lithium-ion battery to store excess energy and provide short bursts of acceleration. Unlike other prototype fuel-cell cars we have driven, such as the Nissan X-Trail, the FCX Clarity emits a high-pitched electric whine while accelerating. 

As we wrote in a previous blog:
"This midsized sedan feels remarkably normal -- in a good way. The car gathers acceleration very promptly and quietly. The electric motor's immediate torque is felt right off the line. The electric motor whines on its way to highway speeds, but sounds quieter than most piston-engine cars. It sounds like a muted, distant hair dryer, with no traditional gas engine and or exhaust sounds."

Some of the main challenges of fuel cells are cost, durability, and the car's range. While other automakers are moving toward 10,000-psi fuel tanks to increase the amount of hydrogen on-board and increase range, Honda has addressed range by improving the fuel efficiency of the car.

The company is still working on cost, but says the fuel-cell system in the FCX Clarity costs half of what the one in its previous FCX fuel cell vehicle cost. Fuel cell durability issues are reduced by leasing the vehicles, rather than selling them to customers.

The car itself is impressive, but, in our opinion, costs too much. Currently, each car is estimated to cost about half a million dollars. And without subsidies, hydrogen costs more than twice as much as gasoline today.

Plus, just obtaining the hydrogen is a problem. It either comes from natural gas or from electricity, a process that consumes more energy than the hydrogen provides.

As good as the FCX Clarity is, it will still be many years before hydrogen is a mainstream fuel. Consider the FCX Clarity a car of tomorrow.

—Eric Evarts