Nov 26 - Waikato Times

Honda will start marketing its new hydrogen- powered car in North America in about six months.

The Japanese car maker announced it was putting its FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle into production at the Tokyo Motor Show last month. At last week's Los Angeles Motor Show it demonstrated its new vehicle and said it would begin limited marketing of the car hydrogen powered car in Southern California in the middle of next year. American Honda plans to lease the FCX Clarity to a limited number of retail customers. Current plans call for a three-year lease term with a price of $US600 ($NZ792.6) a month including maintenance and collision insurance.

The FCX Clarity is based on a new special fuel cell platform and powered by Honda's V fuel cell stack. The only exhaust emission is water vapour.

It will carry four passengers and the motor has a 100kW power output and maximum torque of 256Nm.

The car uses the fuel cell stack in combination with a new lithium ion battery pack and a single 171-litre 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 chemical energy from the reaction is converted to electric power used to propel the vehicle. Additional energy captured through regenerative braking and deceleration is stored in the lithium ion battery pack and used to supplement the power from the fuel cell when needed.

Honda says the new vehicle will have a fuel economy of the equivalent of 4.1 litres per 100km, about two to three times the fuel economy of a petrol powered car and 1.5 times that of a petrol electric hybrid.

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