Fuel for the future

Adelaide Advertiser
Saturday 9/12/2006 Page: 1

Honda is planning a hydrogen-powered fleet within two years.
PAUL GOVER was in the U.S. to drive one of the new-age cars

FIVE words tell you everything about the Honda FXC Concept.

"This is not a fairytale," the car's creator, Yozo Kami, says. It looked like a dream machine when it was rolled into the spotlights at last year's Tokyo Motor Show but since then Honda has been flat-out on transforming that dream into a reality.

It is now planning to have a fleet of FCX Concept cars on the road in the U.S. and Japan in 2008.

Honda and rival car makers, including General Motors, Toyota, Ford, DaimlerChrysler and others, have a powerful incentive, as the state of California is planning tough laws to combat greenhouse gases.

But they are also showing signs of sighting the time beyond petrol power. They can see that using hydrogen as a fuel, and building cars which generate their own power to run electric motors, is emerging as the best long-term solution.

There is still no hydrogen supply network and generating the gas is costly, but Honda is working on systems which use solar power or tap into a household gas connection for refuelling.

Honda will build and lease a fleet of 100 cars from 2008. No one is talking about the cost or terms of the lease, but Honda will copy GM's work with its EV-1 electric car and eventually plans to dissect or crash all the cars at the end of the real-world trial. Honda has plenty of experience with electric and fuel-cell cars, after starting work in the 1980s, but the FCX Concept is a big leap forward.

It is similar in size to Accord Euro and is a four-passenger sedan with a top speed of 160km/h and a range of 330km. It has hydrogen fuel tanks in the tail, the car's fuel-cell "stack", which generates power when it combines hydrogen with oxygen from the air. There is a single-speed gearbox and cooling system in the nose. It all looks very normal, but also quite futuristic, with a giant windscreen over a short nose.

Honda had a pair of FCX Concept cars in California and both had leather trim, aircon, a sound system and anti-skid brakes. The production cars will grow airbags and more, and Honda says they will pass all current and future certification trials, including crash tests.

It is a big project for Honda, as Mr Kami says. "This fuel-cell technology has a very high potential to become the alternative technology to replace the traditional piston engine," he says. "And, if that's the case, working on the fuel-cell technology would be critical, very important for Honda." Mr Kami's team has developed a car which is very similar to today's family sedan, apart from a single speed front-wheel-drive transmission.

Only one gear is needed because an electric motor has massive torque and spins to 12,000rpm. A dial in the dash shows speed, hydrogen use and range.

There are still plenty of problems to overcome, from hydrogen supplies to the cost of the exotic materials used in the fuel-cell stack.

Mr Kami is not forecasting a wholesale switch to fuel-cells, but believes it will run in parallel with plug-in electric cars for cities, and petrol-powered machines for long distance and performance driving.

He admits that full-scale production of fuel-cell cars is some way in the future, but he is prepared to put a marker on the calendar.

"By 2020, I assume the fuel-cell price will be around the same price as the Honda Legend," Mr Kami says. "So around 2020, I expect the general public to walk in and purchase the car." Honda provided a pair of FCX Concepts for a test drive at the Laguna Seca track in northern California. I have driven a number of concept cars and most drive like mobile science experiments.

Some are so fragile that they are limited to just 40km/h, but Honda was keen to seen the FCX Concepts running at 140km/h and more over a short test track.

The cars looked real, felt real and drove surprisingly like regular production cars. The FCX Concept has space for four adults and lashings of leather trim. The boot is small, but that is down to the hydrogen fuel tanks, which also limit rear vision. The view over the short nose is very 21st century and the dash is also futuristic, with the big central dial and a single lever to choose between park, forward and reverse.

When you hit the start button, there is some whirring and gurgling as the fuel-cell goes to work, but otherwise the car is silent. Move away and there is only a distant hiss from the tyres.

It is much more reminiscent of a jet aircraft than a car, right down to the smooth and seamless surge of power. But floor the accelerator and the FCX sounds like a hyper Hoover. It whines and screams as it pushes towards its limit.

Honda does not give a zero-to-100km/h sprint time but it should be near 10 seconds and the top speed claim of 160km/h is realistic. Even better, the FCX Concept rides and handles like a real car. It is even capable of squealing the tyres in a tight turn.

As the sun set over Laguna Seca, I could see the dawn of a new day. The fuel-cell car is coming and the future is looking surprisingly bright. The FCX Concept is a car I would be happy to drive today. And Honda promises it will be even better in 2008 and beyond.

Technology that drives Honda
A fuel-cell is a type of on-board energy pack that was originally developed during the space race. In a car, it produces electricity to power an electric motor which turns the wheels.

"A fuel-cell car is an electric vehicle. The electricity is produced by a fuel-cell stack," the head of Honda's U.S. fuel-cell program, Steve Ellis, says.

"A fuel-cell stack makes that electricity by combining hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air, with the only emission being water." The fuel-cell stack can be easily packaged in a number of areas inside a vehicle, although there are still large hydrogen tanks which Honda is working to shrink.

Mr Ellis says hydrogen is ideal for a fuel-cell because it is so abundant and relatively easy to produce.

"The beauty of hydrogen is that it can be produced from a very diverse set of feed stocks," Mr Ellis says.

"When the energy to extract it is zero carbon-based, such as wind power or solar or hydro-electric, the result is a zero carbon emission fuel and a zero carbon emission vehicle."