Will the line start forming now to lease a new Honda FCX?
Motor Trend has written a little piece on Honda's latest generation of the FCX, a vehicle powered by electricity which is generated by a hydrogen fuel cell. Honda is claiming that the vehicle would get the equivalent of 68 miles per gallon, if, of course, it were powered by X gallons of gas and not X pounds per square inch of hydrogen. If that sounds appealing to you, and you are not worried about the not-so-abundant source of places to fill up on hydrogen, time to start thinking about getting in line. Honda says that they are going to start offering the latest version of the FCX next year. How many, and at what price? Dunno, but Motor Trend speculates that they will offer them under lease, not making them available for purchase. I would tend to agree. Maybe they should lease home hydrogen filling stations too? Or should they skip the FCX completely? If you'd rather have a Honda Hybrid, stay tuned for more news on that front. Check out our exclusive coverage of the FCX below:
Related:
Gallery: Honda FCX Concept
[Source: Motor Trend]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
greatslack 7:16PM (5/12/2007)
about. bloody. time.
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PeakVT 8:53PM (5/12/2007)
I think the hydrogen aspect of this car is nonsense. Fuel cell vehicles might become useful if America creates a grid with excess wind or solar power - hydrogen would be a way to store that excess power. Right now the cheapest way to get hydrogen is to reform it from natural gas, a fossil fuel that is much more useful for heating people's homes and cooking people's foods, not to mention making fertilizer. Put a hybrid powertrain in this car (which looks pretty cool) - according to the next post Honda is talking about a followup to the Insight - and then there will be something to talk about.
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Der Alte 1:15AM (5/13/2007)
I'm curious. Would one be able to park this car underground? How much fuel is lost if it is parked for an extended period?
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Joseph 2:21PM (5/13/2007)
68mpg equivalent, huh?
The electric version of the Rav4 was rated by the EPA, not Toyota, at around 110 mpg equivilant. And that was about 4 years ago.
Wow!(sarcastic) We've come so far!
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Chris M 8:23PM (5/13/2007)
The Honda FCX ver. 2 is a cool looking car, but it could be improved by making it a plugin hybrid. It is much cheaper to run on electricity.
Then they could drop the expensive H2 fuel cell and make it a fully electric car. Not enough range? Add a zinc air fuel cell, which would be much cheaper than a H2 fuel cell and H2 tank, and much more compact as well.
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mikeinBuilding7 4:07PM (5/14/2007)
Agree with No. 2.
- Beautiful.
- Make it a Plugin-Bio-Diesel Hybrid.
I have a Diesel pump in my neighborhood now. There's no Hydro anywhere.
- Why convert wind and solar and nuclear electricity to Hydro, and lose 50% in the conversion!?!?!? Plus, Li batteries are getting better and better Every Day!
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Patrick 7:28PM (5/14/2007)
While I love the idea of clean hydrogen and I think this car is absolutely gorgeous, the reality is that hydrogen just isn't a realistic fuel source...yet.
As a consumer, a marketer and a car enthusiast, I would buy two of these tomorrow if they were hybrids competing with Prius. Yes, that may be an inferior technology that still burns hydrocarbons. But if Honda wants my dollar (as opposed to just my respect) it has to be a car that is usable, every day, every where, and that's the unfortunate bottom line.
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