As promised last month, Honda has launched the production version of its FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle at the Los Angeles motor show, and announced plans to begin limited retail marketing of the vehicle in summer 2008.
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The automaker said the car is a next-generation, zero-emission, hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle based on an entirely new fuel cell platform, and powered by the “highly compact, efficient and powerful” Honda V Flow fuel cell stack.
It is claimed to offer “tremendous improvements” to driving range, power, weight and efficiency – and, importantly looks nice – like a redrawn US-market Accord – with its “low-slung, dynamic and sophisticated appearance, previously unachievable in a fuel cell vehicle”.
“The FCX Clarity marks the significant progress Honda continues to make in advancing the real-world performance and appeal of the hydrogen-powered fuel cell car,” the automaker said in show publicity material.
“Honda plans to lease its latest fuel cell car to a “limited number” of retail consumers in southern California with the first delivery taking place next summer. Current plans are for a three-year lease at $US600 per month (about GB290), including maintenance and collision insurance.
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By GlobalDataHonda chose the FCX Clarity name to express the idea that the company is creating a fuel cell vehicle that will offer a clear solution to the challenges of the future, helping society achieve sustainable mobility.
New battery
It uses the V Flow stack in combination with a new compact and efficient lithium ion battery pack and a single hydrogen storage tank to power the vehicle’s electric drive motor.
The fuel cell stack operates as the vehicle’s main power source. Hydrogen combines with atmospheric oxygen in the fuel cell stack, where energy from the reaction is converted into electric power used to propel the vehicle. Additional energy is also generated through the capture of kinetic energy from vehicle braking and deceleration (known as regenerative braking), which is stored along with surplus energy from the fuel cell in the lithium ion battery pack, and is used to supplement power from the fuel cell, when needed.
The vehicle’s only emission is water.
New cell structure
The V Flow stack features an entirely new cell structure that achieves a higher output of 100kW, smaller size and lower weight, with a 50% improvement in output density by volume, and a 67% increase in output density by mass, compared to the previous Honda stack.
The new stack introduces a cell structure in which hydrogen and air flow vertically, and gravity is used to facilitate more efficient drainage of the water by-product from the electrical generation layer. The result is said to be greater stability in power generation. The new structure also allows flow channel depth to be reduced by 17% – a major contributing factor in creating thinner cells and a more compact stack.
The stack incorporates wave flow-channels for the hydrogen and air, with horizontal coolant flow channels weaving between them. The wave flow channels provide greater flow length per channel than straight channels, while the resulting turbulent flow within the channel promotes improved hydrogen and air distribution. As a result, the hydrogen and air are spread over the entire electrode layer, making more efficient use of the compact electrical generation layer and achieving approximately 10% higher generating performance than with straight flow channels.
Horizontal coolant flow
The horizontal coolant flow also ensures more even cooling over the entire electrical generation layer, allowing for a reduction in the number of cooling layers to half that of previous stacks. While the previous stack had one cooling layer for each cell, the new stack needs only one cooling layer per two cells. This results in a 20% reduction in stack length and a 30% weight reduction, which Honda claimed is a major breakthrough in compact, lightweight stack design.
Improved water drainage due to the cell structure facilitates better output immediately after start-up. The reduced coolant volume and single-box design made possible by the wave flow-channel separators result in heat mass 40% lower than previous stacks. As a result, start-up is now possible at temperatures as low as -30° C, the automaker noted.
New platform packaging
The FCX Clarity’s new platform packages the ultra-compact, lightweight and powerful V Flow fuel cell stack – 65% smaller than the last Honda stack unit – in the vehicle’s centre tunnel, between the two front seats. The compact size allows for a more spacious interior and more efficient packaging of other powertrain components, which would otherwise be unattainable in a sleek, low-slung sedan.
Performance boost, weight loss
The FCX Clarity boasts numerous other significant advances in the performance and packaging of Honda fuel cell technology, compared to the current-generation FCX. These include: a 20% increase in fuel economy (about 2-3 times the fuel economy of a petrol-powered car, and 1.5 times that of a petrol-electric hybrid vehicle, of comparable size and performance); a 30% increase in vehicle range – to 270 miles (approximately 430 km); a 120% improvement in power-to-weight ratio, in part due to around a 400-pound (approximately 180kg) reduction in the fuel cell powertrain weight, despite a substantial increase in overall vehicle size; a 45% reduction in the size of the fuel cell powertrain – nearly equivalent, in terms of volume, to a modern petrol-electric hybrid powertrain; an advanced new lithium-ion battery pack that is 40% lighter and 50% smaller than the current-generation FCX’s ultracapacitor; and a single 5,000psi hydrogen storage tank with 10% additional hydrogen capacity than the previous model.
Stylish design
Honda said the FCX Clarity is its vision of the future of car design and performance, freed from the constraints of conventional powertrain technologies. The four-door sedan platform features a short-nose body and spacious cabin with comfortable accommodation for four people and their luggage. Major powertrain components – including the electric motor, fuel cell stack, battery pack and hydrogen tank – have been made more compact and are distributed throughout the vehicle to further optimise space, comfort and total vehicle performance.
Seat upholstery and door linings are made from Honda Bio-Fabric – a newly-developed, plant-based material that offers CO2 reductions as an alternative to traditional interior materials, along with claimed outstanding durability and resistance to wear, stretching, and damage from sunlight.
Feature-rich
Features include navigation system with hydrogen station locations, a rear view camera, adaptive cruise control (ACC), collision mitigation brake system (CMBS), a premium sound system, climate controlled seats and Bluetooth connectivity.
Other improvements include shift-by-wire, electric power steering (EPS), and a new instrument panel with easy -read display of hydrogen fuel consumption.
CO2 emissions
The FCX Clarity’s only emission is water. CO2 emissions related to the production of hydrogen vary by source; however, well-to-wheel CO2 emissions using hydrogen reformed from natural gas – the most widely used method of production today – are less than half that of a conventional petrol vehicle. With the production of hydrogen from water by electrolysis, CO2 emissions can be further reduced and ultimately approach zero if the electricity is generated from sustainable sources, such as solar, wind, hydro and wave power.
In the area of solar technology, Honda has developed its own solar cells, with half the CO2 emissions in the production stage compared to conventional crystalline silicon cells; and has begun mass-production and retail sales of this technology in Japan for both commercial and residential use. These panels are also used to generate electricity for the R&D refueling station at Honda’s US headquarters in Torrance (south-west LA), California.
Honda is pairing the Clarity with another experimental business, a home energy station that uses natural gas available in many American homes to power a fuel cell that produces heat and electricity as well as hydrogen. Using a home-fueling station can reduce both the cost and carbon dioxide emissions, Ben Knight, vice president of Honda Research and Development America, told The Car Connection website at the LA show.
According to TCC, Honda officials, howver, wouldn’t say how many of the new fuel cell vehicles the automaker is prepared to put into the test or how much they will cost to build. Spokesman Sage Marie was quoted as saying leasing the FCX Clarity will help bring closer the day when advanced technology vehicles will become more common on streets.
“We’ll learn a lot about consumer reaction and customer interest,” he told TCC, declining to make any predictions about when fuel-cell vehicles would become commercially viable. Strategically, though, the experiments with fuel-cell vehicles are becoming more important, he said.
“It’s become a hedge against really high fuel prices,” he told The Car Conncection. “What it is in the long run is making sure the automobile remains viable for the next 100 years.”
