Honda has taken the wraps off of the Japanese version of the hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity and announced that the sleek burgundy sedan will be available for lease in Honda's home country come November.

The Japanese FCX Clarity's specifications (available after the jump) are mostly the same as the American version, with two noticeable differences. First, and high on the list of items everyone is talking about, the Japanese model has climate-controlled seats up front and in back. That's huge. The other item is that Honda is now claiming a range of 620km (385 miles). That's a lot more than the 270 miles that the American version is rated at, but the numbers for the Japanese model were done in 10-15 mode using Honda calculations and the American numbers were calculated with "Honda in-house data calculated using previously approved EPA methodology." Since the American FCX holds its 4.1 kg of hydrogen at 5000psi while the Japanese version stores 171 liters at 35MPa (these are two different ways to say the same thing), I think the difference comes in the testing and calculating rather than any updated technology. The 10-15 cycle is a predominantly urban cycle which benefits from the regen capability provided by the lithium ion battery. The lower U.S. range is based on combined urban/highway cycles with 2008 test procedure.


[Source: Honda]

This weekend at the Twin Ring Motegi track in Japan, the Honda FCX Clarity will be showing its pace by taking on the duties of a pace car. The Indy Racing League is making its annual trek to the homeland of engine supplier Honda for the Indy Japan 300 race at the facility near Tochigi. The fuel cell-powered Clarity will take the place of the usual fleet of Honda Accords as it leads the IndyCars to the green flag and keeps the racers in line while the yellow flag is out. This will be the first race paced by a hydrogen-fueled car; the field of 18 cars that crossed the Pacific are all running on E100 ethanol.

The FCX Clarity will be first series production fuel cell car when it becomes available for lease in Southern California this summer. Honda will be making about 100 Clarities a year available with more to come as hydrogen availability increases (if it does). The Clarity has a range of 270 miles from the 4kg of compressed hydrogen it carries. According to Honda spokesman Todd Mittleman, the company had received about 20,000 inquiries about leasing the Clarity since its debut at last November's LA Auto Show.

[Source: Honda]

click for AutoblogGreen's FCX Clarity test drive gallery

Honda has announced a few more details about the whos and wheres of the FCX Clarity launch that is due to kick off next summer. We already knew that lessees would pay $600 a month for the car, which covers all maintenance costs and collision insurance; fuel is extra. Honda told Automotive News that about 50 people have told Honda that they'd like to be among the few who get to lease an FCX Clarity. Honda also said that three Honda dealers, in or near the cities of Santa Monica, Irvine and Torrance in Southern California, will be the places to get an FCX Clarity. If you're interested in adding your name to the 50, you can do so at the official FCX Clarity site. And click on the First Drive link below to read what it's like to cruise the streets in one of these $10m puppies.

Related:

• LA 2007: 2009 Honda FCX Clarity Live reveal
• First Drive: 2009 Honda FCX Clarity

[Source: Kathy Jackson / Automotive News]

Seemingly only moments after unveiling the 2009 Honda FCX Clarity at the LA Auto Show last week, Honda began running a commercial featuring the first series production fuel cell car. Given that the only thing emitted from the Clarity is water, it seems fitting that the ad features a highly choreographed water fight in the mold of a typical Hollywood blockbuster. The premise is that replacing flying lead with streams of water is analogous to replacing CO₂ and other pollutants with water vapor. Given the extremely limited availability of the Clarity when it becomes available next summer, this is clearly more of an image ad for Honda than promotion for the car itself. See also GM's ads featuring the Volt.

[Source: YouTube]

It's ironic that the FCX Clarity debuted at this time in this place just weeks after much of the surrounding hillsides were engulfed in flames. Fires at this time of year are pretty typical in this region, but 2007 was especially bad after a long period of drought. Global warming probably didn't cause these fires, but the high temperatures and strong winds certainly amplified the problem. We turned off the PCH by the Pepperdine University campus and headed up Malibu Canyon Rd.

Amidst the recently scorched surroundings of the Malibu hills, the electric drive of the FCX proved once again that torque is key to driving pleasure in the real world, much more so than horsepower. The electric motor only puts out 136 hp but the 189 lb-ft torque is available instantly when you press the go pedal. When the demand for forward momentum exceeds the output of the fuel cell, a lithium ion battery mounted under the rear seat provides extra electrons to the get the motor spinning faster. The single-speed transmission mounted co-axially with the motor also means no shifts to interrupt the flow of acceleration.

Pressing the pedal on the left brings plenty of negative acceleration. The pedal feel is firm and the brakes modulate easily. The electronic braking controls seamlessly blend friction and regenerative braking. During light to moderate braking most of the kinetic energy that's dissipated gets fed back into that lithium ion battery for re-use later. Pressing the pedal harder adds in friction braking as needed. Don't bother asking who the battery supplier is or what kind of chemistry it uses. I asked several Honda reps and got nothing more than non-committal smiles.

What you don't get is noise of any significance. The muted hum of the motor is barely audible and the slick aerodynamics mean no wind noise either. It's not quite as tomb-like as a Lexus but it's quieter than an Acura RL. Through the twists of the canyon road, the Clarity always remained flat and stable. With the lightweight structure and all the hardware mounted low in the chassis, the FCX probably has a very low center of gravity which combines with the double wishbone suspension to keep everything under control. None of the surfaces we tried were quite up to the quality standard of Michigan roads I'm used to, so it's hard to really judge the ride quality but it certainly didn't feel any worse than a new Accord.



On the way back down the canyon, we stopped by the Malibu Presbyterian Church which was destroyed by the fires. One has to wonder if a world full of cars like the FCX spewing nothing but water from their exhaust might have alleviated the severity of the inferno. Perhaps, perhaps not, but either way one thing is certain. Looking at the FCX Clarity strictly as a car, ignoring the advanced power source, it comes across as an exceptionally roomy, quiet, fine handling car with decent acceleration and modern styling. Oh yeah there's no toxic emissions either. But if you skip over that last part, it's just a really good car.

Getting one will be somewhat more problematic than driving one. When they launch next summer, they will be available in Japan and in Southern California in limited numbers. To get one you'll have to live within reasonable proximity of one of the hydrogen filling stations. Honda is also looking for customers who have a reasonably high income and a multi-car household. The main reason for the latter is so that if customers need to take a longer trip they have an option. The Clarity might have a 270-mile range, but filling stations are still extremely limited. The Nav system is programmed to pull up locations of hydrogen stations and give directions if needed.

If you do qualify, the Clarity will cost you $600 a month for three years which will get you the car, maintenance and collision insurance. The insurance is because the actual cost of the cars is still high enough to be prohibitively expensive. Unlike with GM's Project Driveway, lessees will have to pony up for fuel. However, that shouldn't be too painful. The FCX averages 68 miles/kg with 1 kg of hydrogen having almost the equivalent energy content to a gallon of gasoline. A new four-cylinder Accord averages in the mid-twenties on gasoline or about one third of the FCX's mileage.



As for the cost of hydrogen, the stations that currently exist in California are selling it for about $5/kg retail. With gasoline currently running close to $4/gallon in the same area, the FCX will be a lot cheaper to operate. Assuming 25 mpg at $4, an Accord would cost $43.20 to drive 270 miles. The same distance in an FCX Clarity at $5/kg will run $19.85. That's not a bad deal for taking a huge leap into the future. When it comes to concerns about cars being taken back at the end of a lease, the rationale is that this technology is still developing.

The current price point is still well below the cost and Honda will likely reclaim these particular units at some point in the future as the vehicles evolve. Neither Honda nor anyone else is exactly sure where it's going to go although Honda seems fully committed to the program. Current Honda fuel cell vehicle lessees like the Spallino family have had their leases extended until the new cars are available. Moving forward as manufacturing costs drop and hydrogen hopefully becomes more available at retail, the program will evolve and grow. For now, Honda is the first to make dedicated fuel cell-powered car that, aside from geographical fueling restrictions, requires essentially no compromises from drivers. It's as fully functional as any mid-luxury sedan on the market today with all the expected amenities, lower-than-normal operating costs and a style doesn't look out of place in one of the most affluent areas of this country.

Click on the FCX Clarity for a high-res gallery

What you see pictured above is the world's first fuel cell-powered car designed from the ground up expressly for that purpose with series production in mind. It's not converted from any existing vehicle like the Chevy Equinox, Toyota Highland and Ford Focus that you can find elsewhere on this site. The Honda FCX Clarity takes the layout and design themes first seen in two years ago in the FCX concept to completion. As we reported earlier this week, the FCX Clarity will be available for lease to retail customers beginning in the summer of 2008.

In the days following the world premiere of the FCX Clarity at the LA Auto Show, Honda invited a select group of journalists to drive a pair of pre-production examples in Santa Monica. As pre-production samples, these two cars are essentially hand built but using production tooling. Some reports have the value of these cars as much as $10,000,000 which may or may not be accurate for the current stage of development, but read on after the break to find out what happens when bloggers take to the PCH and Malibu Canyon in Honda's latest creations.

All photos ©2007 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

Click the FCX Clarity for a high-res gallery

At the Los Angeles Auto Show this morning, Honda got to step three of a process that began at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show when they first introduced the non-driveable FCX concept. A few months later they introduced a running version of that concept and almost exactly a year ago they started letting media, including AutoblogGreen, drive those cars at the Laguna Seca raceway in Monterey. At the time of the original introduction in Tokyo they stated their intention to begin low-volume production in mid-2008. They repeated that intention last year and today they publicly showed the production intent version of the car now known as the FCX Clarity.

The layout of the car remains largely the same as the concept with Honda's unique vertical flow fuel cell in the center console of the four door sedan body. Like the concept, Honda has chosen to stay with a 5,000 psi fuel storage system for the compressed hydrogen gas. Given the space age cab-forward style of the original concept one might have expected a significant change in styling for the production car. You would be mostly wrong. Aside from the nose being stretched a few inches in order to provide some crush space, the Clarity looks almost identical to the concept.

There's more after the break.

[Source: Honda]

Honda will be taking the wraps off the "production" version of their latest generation FCX at the Los Angeles Auto Show next month. The new fuel cell-powered FCX is based on the concept version that we drove a year ago and will be available to fleets and retail customers in the US and Japan starting in 2008. Initial volumes will be low and it's expected to only be available on a lease basis in places where there is some hydrogen availability such as California. The original FCX in 2003 was the first fuel cell vehicle get full EPA and DOT certification for meeting safety and emissions requirements in the US.

Related:

• Honda FCX concept fuel cell car in depth, Pt. 1 - The new fuel cell stack
• Honda FCX concept fuel cell car in depth, Pt. 2 - Styling and powertrain
• Honda FCX concept fuel cell car in depth, Pt. 3 - Construction and interior
  
• Honda FCX concept fuel cell car in depth, Pt. 4 - Driving at Laguna Seca
• AutoblogGreen Q&A with Prof. Joan Ogden and Stephen Ellis- Hydrogen efficiency
• AutoblogGreen Q&A with Jon Spallino - World's first retail fuel cell car customer

[Source: Honda]