Honda has delivered two FCX hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles to the city of San Francisco, bringing to 12 the number of its fuel cell cars on the road in the United States and Japan.
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San Francisco will lease two FCX vehicles for a year with an option for a second year, adding to its fleet of over 700 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles. San Francisco intends to create a hydrogen-refuelling infrastructure to support regular daily use of the vehicles by city officials.
The FCX is the world’s first commercial fuel cell vehicle and is the only FCV certified to meet all of the applicable federal safety standards. It is also the only fuel cell vehicle certified by the US EPA and California Air Resources Board (CARB) for everyday commercial use.
The FCX has a range of up to 170 miles and seating for four people, making it practical for a wide range of real-world applications. In 2003, the city of Los Angeles celebrated its one-year anniversary as the first Honda fuel cell customer with five fuel cell vehicles in every day fleet use.
In addition to the current FCX, Honda has developed its own FC stack with the ability to start in sub-zero temperatures, a major breakthrough for fuel cell technology. Recently, a successful cold-weather demonstration was conducted demonstrating the vehicle’s cold-weather performance capabilities and its ability to start in below freezing temperatures, a major hurdle in the drive to create a truly mass-marketable fuel cell vehicle.
Honda will continue cold weather testing in Japan and the northeastern United States in its efforts to make widespread use of fuel cell vehicles a reality.
Honda undertook fuel cell research in 1989 and has been road testing vehicles in the United States since 1999. The carmaker, which also makes petrol-electric hybrid models, has been a member of the California Fuel Cell Partnership based in Sacramento, California, since 1999.
