the low down on green living
June 17th, 2008
Honda Launches Zero-Emissions Hydrogen Car
Honda has just announced that it will be releasing the FCX Clarity in the US market in 2009. This is a major piece of automotive progress! The Clarity will get 68 MPG and be a zero-emissions vehicle.
How it works: The fuel cell combines hydrogen with oxygen to make electricity. The electricity then powers the electric motor, which in turn propels the vehicle. Water is the only byproduct the FCX Clarity leaves behind. No carbon emissions, no reliance on foreign oil.
To learn more about hydrogen as a fuel for cars, and about the scarcity of hydrogen fueling stations, click here.
According the reviewers at Business Week, the new Clarity is ”a futuristic jellybean, first impressions suggesting a cross between the new Honda Accord and the Prius… If we had any complaint, surprisingly, it was rear visibility, despite the sedan’s expanse of glass.” You can read the rest of the detailed review here.
How much does it cost? Customers will pay $600 a month, over the course of three-year leases, including both maintenance and insurance. The first models will be leased in the L.A. area, but Honda hopes to roll it out to other major markets as well. The problem in those other markets will likely be that there are very few hydrogen filling stations, as compared to California where there are at least a few.
Well, we still can’t wait to see it on the road!
Comments
frank
June 18th, 2008 at 10:08 am
How is an “MPG” figure relevant to energy efficiency? Gallons of… hydrogen? I’m guessing we can’t compare this figure at all to MPG for gasoline cars. It’d be helpful to have some sort of description that puts that figure into perspective. :o)
Jason Pelletier, Low Impact Living
June 19th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Frank:
Due to the problems that you point out, most alternative fuels (natural gas, hydrogen, even ethanol) are often referred to in units of “gasoline gallon equivalent”. These calculations basically convert the native units of these alternative fuels to units equivalent to the energy content in a gallon of gasoline. So, in the example above, the FCX Clarity gets 68 miles for an amount of hydrogen with energy equivalent to one gallon of gasoline (which is about 1.06 gallons of liquid hydrogen). Here’s a pretty nice calculator that allows you to calculate energy equivalents for any combination of fuels. Incidentally, the 68 MPG # above shows that a fuel cell vehicle converts fuel energy into transport energy much more efficiently than does an internal combustion engine - let’s hope they come down in cost!
Greg Werner
June 19th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Frank asks a great question. Since energy is being converted maybe it should be a measurement of BTU’s per mile/kilometer. The MPG measurement focuses on the result of the effort, not the cost. BTU’s is the effort. This is a big difference in perspective. An analogy — The Apollo Command/Service module required an incredible amount of BTU conversion of fuels to get on orbit (the first ten miles) and another burn to go trans-lunar. But think of the net “mileage” it achieved before returning to earth (~500,000). The BTU’s/mile were pretty reasonable (and required) to accomplish the job). If I knew the BTU’s it took to get me a mile, whether by foot, bike, moped, scooter, Hydrogen auto, H3, 18 wheeler, or Saturn V rocket I would have a comparable unit. That makes my CHOOSING easier to understand. BTU’s aren’t the only unit but a start.
Here are some others and possible conversions (http://ezinearticles.com/?British-Thermal-Unit—BTUs-Explained&id=293980)
frank
June 25th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Thanks, both of you, for your enlightening responses. :o)
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