FCX Clarity driver in his own words: a sweet ride that's easy to refuel
Honda FCX Clarity - Click above for high-res image gallery
There are many reasons why Jack Cusick likes his FCX Clarity: the looks, the hydrogen, the ease of refueling. The California Fuel Cell Partnership recently featured a story about Cusick and what it's like to drive a hydrogen fuel cell car today and, yes, he does find the refueling easy.
Cusick had been considering a natural gas vehicle, but "jumped at the chance" to drive a FCX Clarity instead. He's been cruising the streets of Irvine, California, in the gorgeous vehicle since January, refueling at UC Irvine's hydrogen station. Cusick says that refueling with hydrogen is "easier than fueling a regular car, and certainly easier than recharging a battery vehicle," and looks forward to the day when there are more H2 stations around.
Another quote he told CaFCP that we predict will raise some eyebrows here is this one: "I feel better now about using my car for errands since the FCX Clarity doesn't use expensive gasoline or pollute the environment." He had to say expensive, didn't he?
Cusick has also lent his story as a happy H2 driver to Honda (they supplied the picture above). Just look at his smile (or in this one). We don't deny that the FCX Clarity is a sweet car, and imagine that living with it day-to-day has its benefits, but we don't quite get how refueling with hydrogen is, in the bigger picture, easy.
Gallery: 2009 Honda FCX Clarity First drive
[Source: CaFCP]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Gary 11:19AM (9/03/2009)
It's easy when a Hydrogen refueling station is just down the street from where you live... It's not easy for most people.
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Tim 9:26PM (9/03/2009)
It will be easy for everyone to refuel with H2 once the gov't invests a $Trillion and 25 years to buid a a brand new H2 fueling infrastructure. It just won't be cheap!
Even then, we'll STILL be addicted to another Big Oil fossil fuel because H2 comes from Natural Gas at a fraction of the cost of electrolizing it from water.
Exactly how is H2 from Natural Gas going to help stabilize the power grid and what happens to all that C02 left over from the Natural Gas reformation? Oh, we'll spend MORE taxpayer dollars to pump it underground for future generations to find.
And think of all the jobs we'll save because we will have to truck it all over the roads just like we now do with petroleum. It costs NOTHING to ship it by truck, right?
why not the LS2LS7? 11:30AM (9/03/2009)
How much is hydrogen per mile?
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Cwhite 12:55PM (9/03/2009)
Until government regulations are finished, hydrogen can't be sold by the unit like gasoline is. When it's for sale, hydrogen will cost about $3 a kilogram, which is equal to a gallon of gasoline. Because fuel cell vehicles are so efficient, it works out to roughly $1 a gallon (before taxes.)
Honda's lease includes the fuel and insurance.
Chris at CaFCP
www.cafcp.org
GoodCheer 1:09PM (9/03/2009)
Funny, we buy hydrogen for about $12/kg here in Delaware for our fuel cell bus.
http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2007/apr/bus040907.html
Maybe you're making shit up because you have an (obvious) agenda to push...
Doug 1:53PM (9/03/2009)
If we believe Chris's efficiency relation and GoodCheer's price for hydrogen (which might still be subsidized) that comes to an equivalent cost of $4 of gallon.
meme 1:59PM (9/03/2009)
No, it doesn't. The Clarity would not be getting 20mpg as a series gasoline hybrid (I.e., keeping the electric drivetrain and swapping out the hydrogen stack for a gasoline genset), which is what would be required for your comparison to hold true. It'd be getting at least 40mpg, probably closer to 50mpg gasoline. It gets 60 miles per kilogram of hydrogen (on an unspecified drivecycle, so take that with a grain of salt). This means it gets 20-50% more range per kilogram of hydrogen than per gallon of gasoline. This means that $12/kg hydrogen is equivalent to $8-10/gal gasoline.
why not the LS2LS7? 4:13PM (9/03/2009)
Okay, thanks for the info. I suspected as much. This fellow's comments
'I feel better now about using my car for errands since the FCX Clarity doesn't use expensive gasoline' are complete nonsense then.
Chris M 10:39PM (9/05/2009)
But it doesn't use "expensive gasoline", it uses even more expensive H2 fuel! LOL!
Perhaps I'm mistaken, Cwhite, but I thought the Honda lease only included use of the vehicle and insurance, not the H2 fuel. (insurance was included, as few insurers would consider covering this experimental half million dollar car). It was the GM "Project Driveway" that had the "Free car and Free fuel for 3 months" deal.
paulwesterberg 11:32AM (9/03/2009)
The FCX Clarity doesn't use expensive gasoline, it uses expensive hydrogen. And the car lease is expensive too. This the perfect car for people with more money than sense.
btw please stop posting greg blencoe's astroturf propaganda as news.
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Alan 11:32AM (9/03/2009)
It's basically free, you just need water (which is free) and a trickle of electricity (which is almost free). Gorr says so.
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Chris M 5:35PM (9/03/2009)
Only if you happen to live in Gorr's alternative universe, where the laws of reality don't apply. Those of us who live in the Real World find it doesn't work that way.
Mirko 11:43AM (9/03/2009)
...at least it's not ugly, like the Accord Crosstour or the entire Acura range.
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Serge 1:51PM (9/03/2009)
If instead of the useless hydrogen fuel cell, Honda installed one of their efficient ICEs or a Capstone microturbine as a generator I would turn my brand new Fit in and buy this car!
Nixon 11:45AM (9/03/2009)
Easy? Here is easy for you:
Step 1: Pull into garage.
Step 2: Go into your house.
That is how hard it would be to charge a Mitsubishi iMiev Sport with an inductive floor charger.
No inductive charger? oh my gosh, you would have to add one whole step:
Step 1a) Plug in car
You don't have to drive to a filling station, stop at a filling station, hook up anything, wait for anything, pay at the spot for anything, etc.
If you have an REV, if you take a few long trips each year, you may have to hit a gas station a half-dozen times a year, vs having to use fuel from a filling station for EVERY mile you drive in an H2 car.
Tens of millions of cars in the US could be charged this way their entire lives, and rarely if ever see a filling/charging station. Don't bother posting about how it won't work for everyone, because there isn't a single car on the market right now that will work for everyone either. That is why there are hundreds of different vehicles available for folks to buy right now.
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Rick 11:46AM (9/03/2009)
How can refilling be easier than a gasoline car? Filling a gasoline car is as easy as easy gets - maybe it's easier because the guy at the station does it for him.
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Cwhite 1:08PM (9/03/2009)
I refilled the Toyota FCHV-adv that I'm driving this week just a couple of minutes ago. I enter my PIN in the dispenser and attach the nozzle that is similar to a propane nozzle used to fill a barbecue tank. The dispenser literally blows the fuel into the tank, like putting air in a tire. It takes about 3 minutes to fill the tank. Nothing drips, spills or smells bad. Now I've got a full tank for several hundred miles.
Chris at CaFCP
meme 2:05PM (9/03/2009)
FCHV-adv? How's your $8,000/mo lease going? That's the last price announced by Toyota, after all. Or did you get it with a hefty subsidy?
B.Trig 11:53AM (9/03/2009)
Using steam reformation of natural gas isn't all that green, it's still fairly expensive and energy-intensive. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has an interesting paper on it, see http://tinyurl.com/ndjqmk .
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Cwhite 12:57PM (9/03/2009)
NREL's most recent information is at http://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/h2a_production.html
Chris at CaFCP