Honda has long been a player in the efficient car department especially when compared to the “BIG 3″ here in America. Their latest vehicle to be released is a great addition to the Honda line up. The Honda FCX is a great looking vehicle and shouldn’t get users an excuse of it doesn’t look like a normal car as the Prius did. The Honda FCX stores compressed hydrogen in a fuel cell in the rear of the vehicle and when full it has a range of around 280 miles.
While the stats and looks are great my problem with the FCX is Honda’s lack of commitment to it. With only 200 planned deliveries for the next 3 years it won’t exactly help create a marketplace for them or help put pressure on the lack of infrastructure. Honda has also rolled out a pretty silly plan to get these vehicles in the hands of consumers by only allowing them to be leased at a price tag of $600 a month available from 3 dealers in California. Yes, this will get the word out that it’s possible and yes it will get people thinking and talking about going hydrogen powered, but no it won’t create an infrastructure to support future vehicles.
I understand that Honda has also created a way for users to create Hydrogen at home from natural gas, but that is not available for everyone especially in some newer neighborhoods. It’s a great technology advancement and I’d love a ride in one, but the low numbers leave me wanting more of them on the road and more of a commitment to getting America off fossil fuels.
Source: Honda
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June 18th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
The current commitment to making hydrogen fuel cell cars a widespread replacement is indeed underwhelming. It seems unlikely to really shift consumer behavior anytime soon. Perhaps electric motors are a better alternative? These have had problems in the past, but there have been some interesting new developments. See the blog on brightfuture.us.
June 19th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
I agree Tim. I hardly hear anything about this, and everyone seems to be dragging their feet.
I’m curious about electric/hydrogen hybrids.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Have you seen the documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? It’s a great, almost heartbreaking account of how successful electric cars were for awhile — back in the 1990s! If only that technology had stuck around, we’d be in a much better position to transition to models like electric/hydrogen.
June 21st, 2008 at 9:11 am
Yeah I saw that movie on the electric car and couldn’t believe it! It was really outrageous what was done – here was a great alternative and they squashed the idea and gave all sorts of lame excuses for doing so.
When I saw all the Honda ads I thought this was going to be a normal thing now, I did not realize it is another poor excuse for giving the public a ray of hope but really holding back the technology.
Bottom line there is NO excuse today why either electric cars or hydrogen or even bio-diesel cars are not a regular thing on the road. But naturally when the oil companies control the say and go of things I guess one should not be too surprised.
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June 21st, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Seriousness apart- Honda continues to kick some ass!
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June 28th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Tim: I really enjoyed that movie I’m glad that effort is being put into bringing back the electric car in many different forms.
July 1st, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Ok I just added it to the top of my netflix queue. I’ve been talking about this a lot with family members since I originally read this post.
Thanks for the recommendation.
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