Honda Releases Stylish, Sporty Fuel Cell Car
by Charles Fleming, Los Angeles Times / April 7, two thousand seventeen
(TNS) — The science experiment is over. Hydrogen fuel cars are real.
Toyota and Hyundai proved it with their Mirai and Tucson FCVs, respectively. Now, Honda has taken the technology a step further. The two thousand seventeen Clarity is real, and it`s indeed joy.
Honda`s fuel cell entry is a stylish four-door sedan that offers premium cabin convenience and cargo capacity for five passengers and their gear.
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This is possible because Honda engineers downsized and repositioned the engine components so they fit under the fetish mask, like on a standard internal combustion engine car – instead of taking up space inbetween the rear seats, or in the trunk area, as they do on other fuel cell vehicles.
With the engine under the fetish mask, Honda could park the battery under the front seats and two hydrogen tanks under and just behind the rear seats. The remaining real estate is all faithful to human space.
Like its fuel cell competitors, Honda`s Clarity is powered by a fuel stack that combines on-board compressed hydrogen with oxygen to produce electrical play, which then drives an electrical motor that propels the car, leaving only water vapor to emit from the tail pipe.
But Honda has taken its Clarity a step beyond the Mirai and Tucson by providing it a Sport driving mode that takes good advantage of the electrical motor. In normal mode, the Clarity is a slow, sustained, sedate sedan.
But in Sport mode, which emphasizes joy over fuel economy, it`s an energized, engaged driving practice.
Over two days of driving – on city streets, wide-open freeways and curving canyons – I was remarkably entertained by the Clarity`s punchy acceleration and precise treating.
The Clarity has some luxury and high-tech appointments. The keyless ignition unlocks the vehicle at the touch of the driver`s palm. Rain-sensing wipers engage with the arrival of precipitation. A heads-up display projects vital information onto the windshield. The ultra-suede and simulated wood grain interior and the dash elements all have a quality fit and finish.
The Clarity is connected and ready for Apple Car Play and Android Auto. The HondaLink cellphone app will permit the operator to begin the car remotely and get the heater or AC going. It will also find the car, electronically, if the operator parked it while confused by shopping mall euphoria; it can also find the closest fueling station and provide directions for getting there.
It`s an effortless car to drive and, once you get used to the absence of engine sound and stimulation, feels like any other mid-range sedan.
The adequate visibility is enhanced by a navigation screen that turns into a rear-view camera not just when the car is in switch roles but when the right-turn indicator is engaged – providing the driver added visual assistance when backing up or making a right-hand lane switch.
Silent, sleek and responsive, the Clarity got my high marks for spectacle. I even forgave it for the unappealing exterior design, which seems to suffer from the syndrome that struck the very first generation of Porsche Panameras – with the sleek lines extending from the sporty front of the car having to expand to permit for a full-size rear seating area.
Like its rivals, the Clarity`s hydrogen tank can be packed in three to five minutes, from a fueling device that looks and acts a lot like a traditional gas station pump. Range inbetween refills on the Clarity is three hundred sixty six miles per tank, according to the Environmental Protection Agency – ahead of the Mirai`s range of three hundred twelve miles and the Tucson`s 265.
However, also like all hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the Clarity`s fast-fueling capacity is limited by the current fuel cell infrastructure.
As of March 2017, there were only twenty six fueling stations open in California – which has by far the densest fuel cell invasion.
Those numbers are expected to rise, Honda executives and others say. Stephen Ellis, manager of fuel cell vehicle marketing for Honda, said an extra thirty six stations will be on line, split inbetween Northern and Southern California, by 2018.
Some drivers may practice other range issues. Albeit Honda is proud of its best-in-class three hundred sixty six miles of EPA-approved total driving distance, my practice with the Clarity suggested otherwise. So did the practices of other automotive journalists who collective their reactions to the Clarity with me.
The EPA numbers are based on a calculation of miles driven per kilogram, and then translated to a miles-per-gallon equivalent and multiplied by the size of the fuel tank.
The federal agency`s testers gave the Clarity a sixty eight mpg-equivalent rating.
I got less than that, most likely as a result of the Fleming Leadfoot Factor. I was driving the car mostly in Sport mode, and taking advantage of the peppy spectacle.
According to the dashboard display, I was going to get well under three hundred sixty six miles per tank, maybe one hundred miles less than that.
Other reviewers had similar practices. Two told me their test drives seemed to produce something inbetween two hundred forty and two hundred sixty miles per tank of fuel. One refilled his tank when it was half total, having gone about one hundred twenty miles. Another drove about two hundred eighty miles before refilling, while being told by the car that the remaining range was less than ten miles.
Ellis, asked about the discrepancy, said the displayed range on the car was «weighted intensely on the vehicle`s lifetime fuel economy.»
Drivers who`d borrowed the Clarity before me drove like I did, in other words. The onboard computer adjusted, and predicted a total range of two hundred fifty four miles when I got into the car with a utter tank, based on the way the car had been driven by previous drivers.
Had it been a brand fresh car, driven EPA-style in Normal mode, Ellis said, the Clarity would likely have predicted a total range of closer to the EPA-approved three hundred sixty six miles, and then delivered that range.
Could I have achieved something close to that, despite the car`s history, had I driven that way? Could someone else?
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle sales, limited by technology that`s fresh to most consumers and by the shortage of dealers that sell the cars and fueling stations that pack them, have not been sturdy.
Toyota said it had moved 1,245 four-seater Mirai fuel cell cars as of the end of February, almost all of them leased.
Honda isn`t selling its Claritys at all, for the time being, and only offers the cars in California, but with a very appealing lease deal. Wannabe lease holders will pay $369 a month, after a down payment of $Two,868, to drive one home.
That`s a little more than the $349 a month and $Two,499 down for a Mirai, and a little less than the $499 a month and $Two,999 down for a Tucson.
Any of the three will qualify for a $Five,000 cash rebate, and Honda will throw in a $15,000 fuel credit, via a credit card – which the company said should be enough to cover the utter three years of the average lease. (Toyota and Hyundai will cover the fueling costs on the Mirai and Tucson.)
That`s a good thing because compressed hydrogen, when calculated on a per-gallon rate, costs three to five times more than gasoline, the equivalent of $9.99 per gallon at some locations, more than $15 at others (however hydrogen-technology boosters insist that, with more widespread adoption, fuel costs will come down).
The vehicles also qualify for the coveted California HOV carpool lane sticker, which alternative-fuel analysts still see as a key driver of fuel cell and battery electrical vehicle adoption.
For expeditions that would take the Clarity beyond its 366-mile refuel range, Honda also offers twenty one days of free Avis luxury-car rental over the duration of the lease.
There are many people antsy to get their mitts on the fresh cars, with some dealers holding waiting lists with «hundreds» of names, Ellis said.
«We`ve attempted to eliminate all the barriers and hurdles,» he said.
Honda executives have said they were attempting, with the Clarity, to build a fuel cell car that suggested zero emissions, a long driving range and a comfy «lounge-like» interior for five full-sized adults.
By those standards, Honda has succeeded. The Clarity isn`t a science experiment anymore. It`s a car, and a good one.
For those not ready for hydrogen, Honda will commence suggesting other Clarity models soon. One will be a late two thousand seventeen battery-powered electrical, the other a two thousand eighteen plug-in hybrid. They`ll look and act a lot more like other low-emission vehicles presently on the road.
But they won`t come with free fuel.
©2017 Los Angeles Times Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.