HISTORY USUALLY ISN’T MADE AT CAR dealerships, at least the positive kind, but that’s exactly what happened late last month at Honda of Santa Monica, when the automaker delivered a new car, unlike any other, and about which few people could complain.
Local Southern California couple Ron Yerxa and Annette Ballester got the keys to the first FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell EV sedan to be leased in America. About 200 of the vehicles will be leased over the next three years around the country. Southern California will have three Honda stores with personnel factory-trained to sell, deliver, service and maintain these truly ground-breaking family sedans.
The timing couldn’t have been better. Just a month ago, a Shell gas station in West Los Angeles, just a few miles from the Honda of Santa Monica store, was outfitted with the equipment to store and sell hydrogen, one of about 45 places in the country where hydrogen is available to the public. Coincidence? We think not. Also, Honda, at their U.S. headquarters in Gardena, also has hydrogen fuel “pumps.”
FCX Clarity is, according to Honda, “a next-generation, hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle. Propelled by an electric motor that runs on electricity generated in the fuel cell, the vehicle's only emission is water, and its fuel efficiency is three times that of a modern gasoline-powered car.”
The company says this latest-generation FCX will travel about 280 miles, or 74-mpg GGE (miles per gasoline gallon equivalent).
General Motors will also lease about 200 Chevrolet Equinox hydrogen fuel cell EVs over the next two to three years, finding their way into government, university and industry test fleets, as well as some lucky private citizens.
Equinox will get some real-world road testing serving as taxi cabs in NYC, and in the hands of others in Washington, D.C. and Southern California. The monthly lease for Equinox and FCX Clarity is about $600.
Ever wonder how astronauts get electricity and drinking water in space? Fuel cells.
First described as theory in 1839, the first working model was built in 1845.
Fuel cells’ first commercial use was in the Mercury manned space program in the 1960s. Today, large industrial fuel cell installations supply back-up power for hospitals, factories, office buildings and government installations worldwide.
And there are tests being run to see how fuel cells might power private homes, much to the chagrin of power companies around the world.
How do they work? Pressurized hydrogen passes through a fuel cell “stack,” really a series of chemical membranes, producing electricity and H2O, which is how astronauts get their water and electricity, and how fuel cell cars work.
BMW and Mazda have begun loaning and leasing a small number of 7-series “Hydrogen 7” and RX-8 “Hydrogen RE” models, outfitted with existing, traditional piston and rotary engines modified to run on both gasoline and hydrogen (but not at the same time).
No greenhouse gases are produced when hydrogen is used in rotary or internal combustion engines (ICE), because there’s no carbon in the fuel.
Mazda and BMW have gone this dual-fuel route because there is no wide-spread hydrogen infrastructure — yet. But existing oil and natural gas pipelines and pumps could be retro-fitted for hydrogen and, voila, there’s the start of our much-needed hydrogen economy. These Mazda and BMW efforts could make sense as transitional cars while hydrogen’s infrastructure is being built America is now fighting wars on several fronts, from the Horn of Africa throughout the Mideast and on to Turkey, in Mexico and throughout many Central and South American nations, almost anywhere there are oil fields or might be in the future, all for the sake of filling our gas tanks.
Like any addict, the first thing we have to do is admit we have a problem. Nationally, we haven’t come close to doing that, with the two old men running the country keeping the oil companies close to their hearts and their bank accounts.
If John McCain is elected, we can probably expect little in the way of this necessary change-over from oil to hydrogen or even the creation of all-new fuels not even thought-of as yet; if Barack Obama is sworn-in this coming January, convincing the country that we have an addiction problem, a problem which can be overcome and treated, will be one of his first and most important jobs.
STEVE PARKER, a long-time Santa Monica and Marina del Rey resident, has covered the world’s auto industry and motor racing for over 35 years. He’s hosted many radio shows, and was honored with two Emmy Awards for his reporting at KTLA/TV5 and KCBS/TV2. He also writes and moderates the only all-automotive blog at the Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-parker). Reach him directly at his Web site, www.SteveParker.com.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 5, 2008. Read the original PDF.