Review: Hydrogen-powered Honda Clarity is a gas

June 3rd, 2009, 7:05 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Matt Degen

No doubt, one of the best things about this job is the opportunity to drive a variety of cars, everything from bargain-basement econo-boxes to top-of-the-line luxury sport coupes. For a car guy, that’s like a dream come true.

But one of my latest weekly test-drivers was in a category all by itself, not only because it’s so rare, but because of the stuff it actually runs on: Honda’s hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity.

According to Todd Mittleman, director of environmental public relations for Torrance-based American Honda, my FCX Clarity was one of only about six currently on the streets. Honda aims to lease about 200 of these cars to customers in the next two to three years, most of them in Southern California. (Jaime Lee Curtis, pictured with car below, is among the new owners.)

To be one of the 200 granted a lease, strict criteria must be met, most important of which is how many miles you drive and how close you are to a hydrogen refueling station.

That last part, regarding hydrogen-refueling infrastructure, is what could make or break hydrogen-powered cars in the coming years. After all, even if a car such as the Clarity emits zero emissions and gets the equivalent of 60 mpg, if there is nowhere to refuel the thing, what’s the point? In Orange County, there is currently just one public refueling station, and that’s on the campus of U.C. Irvine.

Like every other person who gets to drive one of the cars, a 15-minute re-fueling orientation is required. While it’s not rocket science, and mostly mimics refueling with gasoline, the process with hydrogen is slightly different. One must enter some information on the station’s console, hook up and lock in the fuel nozzle, and let the pump do its thing. Refueling itself took about five minutes, and provided a range in the Clarity of about 240 miles.

According to UCI’s Tim M. Brown, Ph.D., who led the orientation, there isn’t much danger in refueling with hydrogen; since it is lighter than air, if there were a leak the gas simply moves straight up into the atmosphere.

Driving-wise, the Clarity feels pretty much like, well, a regular car. The biggest difference I found is its engine noise, or lack there-of. Like gas-electric hybrids, the car can be nearly silent. That’s “nearly” silent. It takes some time to get used to the high-pitched whines created under the hood and carriage as the hydrogen (in gas form) reacts to power an electric motor.

Otherwise, Honda has created a top-notch car in the FCX Clarity, which produces the equivalent of 134 horsepower and 189 lb-ft of torque. Steering is spot on, and luxury touches like heated and cooled seats made driving the four-passenger sedan a joy.

Even with the always-before you glowing orb of driving/fuel feedback and and perhaps the world’s smallest shift lever, I often forgot that I was driving such a unique — and uniquely powered — vehicle.

“Is it fast?” asked one young gate attendant, taking in the car’s futuristic looks.

Well, no, it isn’t. But that’s not the point.

With the Clarity, Honda is pursuing just one more way to create a more environmentally friendly car while weaning us off of foreign oil.

(Critics have contended that hydrogen production takes energy, too. In response to that Honda points to the ability to create hydrogen using solar energy, such as at its R&D station in Torrance, pictured at right. Also of note is a recent Parade interview with GM R&D director Larry Burns, who pointed out that it takes hydrogen to create gasoline, and “The amount of hydrogen used to make gasoline today could fuel 200 million fuel-cell vehicles.”)

If you want to try a Clarity yourself, getting in one is more like a raffle. You must enter at Honda’s FCX Clarity Web site to be one of the roughly 200 customers granted the three-year, $600 a month lease of the vehicle. For those who do, they very well might be driving the future today.

[For full specifications on the FCX Clarity, please click HERE. Click to enlarge pictures below.]