Hydrogen-Powered Honda FCX to go Into Production
Several months ago at the Tokyo Motor Show, Honda introduced a wind cheating, earth friendly, fuel cell-powered concept called the FCX. Several weeks ago in Detroit at the NAIAS, Honda quietly announced that they would build a production vehicle based on the FCX concept. With the advancements they’ve made for this latest generation of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles, a production model will be ready within three to four years.
It will probably be available only to a small group of alternative fuel loyalists and devotees, and likely only in Japan or possibly California where Honda previously introduced the FCX-V4 of which a portion of 30 examples found their way into government fleets and at least one famiy, but the packaging solutions Honda has developed for hydrogen storage as well as their clever Home Energy Station, alleviating the need for widespread hydrogen refilling stations on the road, point the way around many of the obstacles, or detours, on the road to the hydrogen highway and zero-emission culture of the future.
Many of the advancements with the new FCX center around Honda’s V Flow fuel cell platform. The cells are stacked vertically in the center tunnel and arranged in a vertebral layout (think of it as though the stacks are your backbones if you are lying on your back) for higher efficiency packaging as well as more efficient management of gas flow (from top to bottom). Another breakthrough was in the realm of storage, and with a newly developed higher absorption material in the tanks which allowed Honda to double storage capacity. The FCX can achieve a real-world driving range of over 500 km (350 miles).
The fuel cells work by collecting energy from the conversion of hydrogen and oxygen into water, which gives off electricity. In the case of the FCX, the energy is then fed to three efficient motors, two compact 25kW motors in each of the rear wheels and a larger energy-efficient 80kW motor in the front. The three motors combine to make a total of 100kW, and the primary emission is water, which flows through those vertical stacks more easily than the usual horizontal arrangements.
