Filed under: Hydrogen, Honda, USA
Jamie Lee Curtis receives her Honda FCX Clarity
Click above for more pics of Ms. Curtis getting Clarity
Following Ron Yerxa and Annette Ballester's delivery of the first Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell car, Jamie Lee Curtis and her husband, Christopher Guest, have become the second couple in Southern California to receive their new wheels from Honda. So, what does Curtis think of her newfound Clarity? "I really wasn't expecting it to be so luxurious," said Curtis. "It's luxurious, luxurious, luxurious! I love the interior layout, design and access to controls. It is user-friendly and very modern."
While the case for hydrogen as fuel is a topic full of debate, it would be hard to argue that Honda's most recent fuel cell sedan isn't world's better than its first. Styling wise, for sure, the new Clarity is a huge step forward, as is the electricity-generating fuel cell stack. If you want one, don't get your hopes up. The vehicles are only being leased in Southern Cal and Japan, and there won't be many of them available. The official press release is after the break.
[Source: Honda]
Press Release:
Honda Delivers FCX Clarity to Jamie Lee Curtis
Second FCX Clarity zero-emissions fuel cell vehicle now on the road
08/05/2008 - TORRANCE, Calif. - American Honda Motor Co., Inc., today announced that its second FCX Clarity customer, Jamie Lee Curtis, took delivery of the vehicle on July 31, 2008. Curtis and husband Christopher Guest are the second of approximately 200 customers who will begin leasing the vehicle in the United States and Japan over the next three years.
"I really wasn't expecting it to be so luxurious," said Curtis. "It's luxurious, luxurious, luxurious! I love the interior layout, design and access to controls. It is user-friendly and very modern."
Actress and children's book author Curtis and her husband, filmmaker Guest, live in Santa Monica. They have owned other alternative fuel and hybrid vehicles and continue to seek out ways to live and advocate a greener lifestyle.
Ron Yerxa and Annette Ballester, Santa Monica residents, took delivery of the first FCX Clarity on July 25, 2008.
The FCX Clarity is a next-generation, hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle. Significant advances over Honda's previous generation FCX include a 25 percent increase in combined fuel economy to 72 miles/kg-H2* (74 mpg GGE <miles per gasoline gallon equivalent>) and a greater than 30 percent increase in driving range up to 280 miles*. Propelled by an electric motor that runs on electricity generated in the fuel cell, the vehicle's only by-products are heat and water, and its fuel efficiency is three times that of a modern gasoline-powered automobile.
*Based on official 2008 EPA mileage estimates. Use for comparison purposes only. Your actual mileage will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nicholas 12:22PM (8/06/2008)
Leased like the EV1s....
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meme 1:01PM (8/06/2008)
So, how long until we get the mournful documentary, "Who Killed the Hydrogen Car"? :)
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Serge 2:38PM (8/06/2008)
Better be careful filling that thing up. Remember the Hindenburg?
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BillySharps 3:52PM (8/06/2008)
Oh jeeze. There are better reasons to oppose hydrogen than the fear of an explosion.
stevefazek 6:52PM (8/06/2008)
I rather have hydrogen spray out at high PSI and float out of the area in a few seconds then have 10-30 gallons of gas pool under my car for hours.
Serge 10:17AM (8/07/2008)
Billy: the better reasons are being noted on every "hydrogen economy" post on this blog, so I didn't want to repeat them. Now that elements of this economy are being put in place, I wanted to discuss the safety issue as well.
Steve: modern transportation does involve high-energy fuels or "containers." In terms of safety, I would rather prefer my vehicle powered by next generation battery chemistry (with quick charge capability), rather than compressed hydrogen, CNG or gasoline.
jake 3:58PM (8/06/2008)
Despite all the snarky comments the Clarity usually brings here, you have to admit it's a good effort by Honda, much better than the original.
Of course the leasing and limited avaliability still leaves kind of a bad taste.
All this celebrity treatment of the Clarity makes me wonder how GM will launch their Volt...hmm.
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meme 5:01PM (8/06/2008)
"Oh jeeze. There are better reasons to oppose hydrogen than the fear of an explosion."
Yeah, because, as we all know, hydrogen isn't explosive, right?
This bottle hardly has enough hydrogen in it to get you out of the driveway:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVDvbmQ5R_k
This balloon has enough hydrogen in it to take a clarity about 40 miles or so:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMB2VR0087w
Gasoline requires a very precise fuel-air mixture to burn rapidly, and is incapable of evolving a deflagration into a detonation in STP conditions. Hydrogen burns violently in air in almost any mixture and can readily evolve a deflagration into a detonation. And it has a ridiculously low ignition energy. And easily escapes containers. And loves to pool under overhangs. And to enter pipes and follow them to their destinations, then pool there. I could go on for hours. There's a reason why NASA takes such extreme precautions around it.
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BillySharps 5:36PM (8/06/2008)
Indeed. I didn't say hydrogen wasn't dangerous. I said there are better reasons to oppose it than its explosive properties. Here are three better reasons.
No fueling infrastructure.
Inherent inefficiencies.
Price to produce fuel cells and cost of the hydrogen fuel.
And then on top of those, we have safety issues. Hydrogen as an energy carrier is a big waste of time and money when you consider the progress we have made with chemical batteries.
Killroy 5:33PM (8/06/2008)
I like the fact that it is a Series Hybrid, but I wish it was a BEV.
Does it plug in? I dont think so.
The Clarity is inefficient because 1. Its so big and heavy, mostly do to hydrogen storage. 2. Hydrogen production, storage, transport, compression is very wasteful compared to a BEV.
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usbseawolf2000 7:29PM (8/06/2008)
How did she get the clean pass? I thought they stop giving those out in CA.
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Chris M 3:02AM (8/07/2008)
There are two classes of "clean pass" HOV stickers, the yellow ones for low emission high milage hybrids have been sold out, but the white ones for zero emission cars - battery electrics and H2 fuel cell cars - well, there are still plenty of them left.
Casey 11:35PM (8/06/2008)
Honda chose her because, like the car, she has an ambiguous drivetrain (wink, wink!)
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TopaZ 2:38AM (8/07/2008)
Anderson Cooper receives a Clarity!
Damn, woman, dye your hair please -- you're ruining my childhood memories.
That said, I'd be all over one at $300/mo. As $600/mo... not so much.
And the HOV stickers are still available in the white variety for full-time near-zevs (Honda GX qualifies too). The yellow ones (hybrids) are the ones that ran out a couple of years ago.
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Chris M 3:13AM (8/07/2008)
Well, yes it is luxurious, thats what you would expect in a million dollar car!
But for the same reason, Honda won't make more than a handful of FCX Clariitys, and it is "lease only" with no purchase option, no sales. It is going to be interesting to see what happens 3 years from now, after the plug-in sales are booming and the hydrogen hype has faded. Will Honda continue to lease them, or will Honda sell them at a loss, or will Honda take them back and scrap them to recover the platinum from the fuel cell stack? I'm betting they will scrap those beauties, especially if the price of platinum goes up...
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Dustin 10:37AM (8/07/2008)
So many misconceptions, but people would rather whine and move on than simply learn something.
As someone said, the FCX is a million dollar car. No one would buy it for that price. Honda is leasing it for a price that people can pay, but that $600 certainly doesn't give them ownership. The only customers that would buy it for a million dollars is all the other manufacturers, and I think Honda is taking specific steps to see that it doesn't fall into their hands.
Also it is only leased in certain areas because of where the hydrogen stations are located, simple as that. It is in the contracts that these cars need to be driven almost daily.
And finally, while you all suddenly believe that hydrogen is a "fad," Honda has been working on the FCX since 1986. This is not something they brought out on a whim or because of high gas prices - this is Honda's vision of future transportation. All we're waiting on is the refueling infrastructure.
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BillySharps 4:14PM (8/07/2008)
This fueling infrastructure has no reason to exist until there are cars that can use it. There will never be cars that can use it because they are much too expensive and batteries can do the same job more efficiently and much less expensively. Frankly, Honda's "vision of future transportation" sucks.
Noz 6:39PM (8/07/2008)
The gasoline infrastructure was built up well before cars were mass produced.
This is a TEST vehicle...things don't happen overnight...much to the chagrin of Faux News.
Markus Unread 3:56AM (9/12/2008)
I saw her on Leno and I just get irritated by statements like "pollution free" and "the exhaust is water"...
Ok, it does output water, but where do these people think that the hydrogen comes from?? If it's from water electrolysis, then the reality is that it's really a 65% coal, natural gas/ 20% nuclear / 15% "other" car. That's more or less the fuel mix for the US power grid. Electric car fanatics hate it when I mention that!
The other ways to generate H2 is by stripping it out of things like natural gas.
They talk about these cars like they are grown on organic cooperative farms and the hydrogen comes from sparkling H2 springs in pristine wilderness bottling facilities - so pure you can taste the difference!
:-)
Until we have pervasive distributed green electricity generation, hydrogen, and pure EV's (because H2 cars are just overly complicated EV's), are just cars that pollute "somewhere else".
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