Honda's New Hydrogen-powered Car

[wilful]

The link takes you to the latest on the new car. Looks a real smasher!

Honda's hydrogen-powered car - Sify.com

[ramie2400]

For sure honda is coming with some real futuristic looking cars packed with new technology,this Honada FCX clarity looks cool i things its the newer version based on the Honda CRX.

[Nitin]

Excellent! I hope we get to more of these cars in the near future.
With gas prices being so high,and emission levels messing up the environment,this is the perfect solution to everything. $600 a month..hmm..now that's something to look at.

[arunmur]

You would not say so, if you knew the price of the car.

From what i heard, the car is available only as lease. You can lease the car at $500(Rs20K) per month in the US. The price of 1 KG hydrogen will be equivalent of Rs60 but the car will go about 200kms from 4 KG hydrogen. If ever Honda brings this thing here, they will lease it at about Rs.50K per month.

Looks cool though.

[highwayblaze]

Originally Posted by Nitin

Excellent! I hope we get to more of these cars in the near future.
With gas prices being so high,and emission levels messing up the environment,this is the perfect solution to everything. $600 a month..hmm..now that's something to look at.

Dude,
You'll see the ad for this car very often on cable here! Its the FCX. They've got a hatch back version of this car in Japan. The hydrogen power pack can be unplugged from your car and mounted on to a jack to your house or apt. and the thing will power your house.Hows that ?
yea i think its time all the mfg's geared to get up to speed with Honda or an alternative to GM's EV1 !

[ananthkamath]

Chevy Volt is in advanced engineering stage I believe.

[Nitin]

Originally Posted by ananthkamath

Chevy Volt is in advanced engineering stage I believe.

Thats what I've been told. They are trying to move things quickly,to be able to get it into production ASAP.

[Nitin]

Originally Posted by highwayblaze

Dude,
You'll see the ad for this car very often on cable here! Its the FCX. They've got a hatch back version of this car in Japan. The hydrogen power pack can be unplugged from your car and mounted on to a jack to your house or apt. and the thing will power your house.Hows that ?
yea i think its time all the mfg's geared to get up to speed with Honda or an alternative to GM's EV1 !

Funny..I've never seen the ad.
Cool concept through..!

[ramie2400]

Originally Posted by arunmur

You would not say so, if you knew the price of the car.

From what i heard, the car is available only as lease. You can lease the car at $500(Rs20K) per month in the US. The price of 1 KG hydrogen will be equivalent of Rs60 but the car will go about 200kms from 4 KG hydrogen. If ever Honda brings this thing here, they will lease it at about Rs.50K per month.

Looks cool though.

1kg hydrogen(Rs.60) = 200kms i.e. approx. Rs.3.5/- km which is not bad at all,and paying 20k per month for it is a full VFM,i dont think so this car will be here before 2015 and i am sure by that time the prices of hydrogen fuel will be three times the rate what it is now.

[speedzak]

Nice. This car was shown in the Auto Expo at Delhi this year. It was a bit more earlier stage of the concept though.
Now, there's a bit of more signs of a production car. Well, let's wait for it to come out and do good.

[flipsyde]

Originally Posted by arunmur

You would not say so, if you knew the price of the car.

From what i heard, the car is available only as lease. You can lease the car at $500(Rs20K) per month in the US. The price of 1 KG hydrogen will be equivalent of Rs60 but the car will go about 200kms from 4 KG hydrogen. If ever Honda brings this thing here, they will lease it at about Rs.50K per month.

Looks cool though.

Originally Posted by ramie2400

1kg hydrogen(Rs.60) = 200kms i.e. approx. Rs.3.5/- km which is not bad at all,and paying 20k per month for it is a full VFM,i dont think so this car will be here before 2015 and i am sure by that time the prices of hydrogen fuel will be three times the rate what it is now.

hey ramie looks like 200kms come from 4KGs of Hydrogen and not one like you have calculated.

besides looks like your math skills don't match upto your photoshop skills .

cost per km = rs.60/200kms which is rs.0.30 a km. but of course we know that it takes 4KGs to get 200kms which is rs.240/200km = rs.1.20.

now even at rs.20k a month for the lease thats by far the cheapest way to get around at the moment!! and wouldn't cost of hydrogen production go down as more people demand for it?? surely they would have made some progress in the field of production and storage of hydrogen in the years to come.

[highwayblaze]

Originally Posted by ananthkamath

Chevy Volt is in advanced engineering stage I believe.

That thing is a joke in comparison to GM's EV1. its so strange, the same company once produced a better Electric Vehicle. Downgrading for progress or what?! weird no?

[highwayblaze]

Originally Posted by Nitin

Funny..I've never seen the ad.
Cool concept through..!

It doesnt run too often. but you'll definitely see it!

[arunmur]

Originally Posted by highwayblaze

That thing is a joke in comparison to GM's EV1. its so strange, the same company once produced a better Electric Vehicle. Downgrading for progress or what?! weird no?

The Ev1 was a twin seater power by Lead acid battery pack(and NiMH in later stages) with a range of about 80-100 miles. Most people used it for daily commute and were in love with it until one rude day, GM decided to snatch their comfort. The Volt is a patch by GM after eating all the critcism from the users and green groups.

The Volt, unlike the EV1 can go about 40 miles in a single charge and it has a range extender(an engine petrol/CNG/LPG/Diesel or a fuel-cell stack) that allows it to go much further. Unlike the EV1 the Volt can be used for long drives too. The Volt also supposed to use the mordern and debated Litium-ion(phostphate based) cells, that charge in no time and are much lighter. For a dialy user it can go as good as no fuel usage at all to about 70 MPG(28kmpl).

There are quite some of second hand car maintainers have actually replaced their big engines with Lead acid battery, motor and an small litre sized engines to get 60+MPG figures.

About these things in India, dont have any hope, not atleast till 2020, unless TATA makes one.

Unlike Hybrids, Hydrogen cars are much reachable for us(Hydrogen run ICE(Internal Combustion Engine)), government promises to make available Hydrogen car by 2010(Interpreted in Indian government time as 2015), a group of companies are working on it. Hydrogen will also be introduced into the CNG. The cost of production of hydrogen is still and hanging issue, as of current situation we have many solutions to this issue.

- While the sun shines our government can put to use all the barren land in places like Rajasthan and some smaller places in other states, to produce Hydrogen from water.

- They put to use some very light spirits from the Petroleum extract to produce Hydrogen.

- Hyrdrogen can also be produced at home, by buying a solar/non solar powered small water-to-hydrogen systems. The advantage is this can act as a fuel, to your house inverter and also for car.

The main defect that people never tell about hydrogen cars are that they will not solve our Global warming, it will solve economy/fuel crisis and health hazards. This is because water vapour by itself is a warming component, though it does not seem as big an issue now, it will become an issue when millions of people start using this. But a fuel cell powered car comes as a breather as it is atleast 100-120% more energy efficient(theoratically) than petrol cars and water vapour can be cooled/condensed in the car after this awareness comes to people.

[highwayblaze]

Originally Posted by arunmur

The Ev1 was a twin seater power by Lead acid battery pack(and NiMH in later stages) with a range of about 80-100 miles.

Originally Posted by arunmur

The Volt, unlike the EV1 can go about 40 miles in a single charge ... has a range extender... that allows it to go much further. Unlike the EV1 the Volt can be used for long drives too?? For a dialy user it can go as good as no fuel usage at all to about 70 MPG(28kmpl).

Arun, i've highlighted your comments above.
1. EV1 had a range of 80-100miles.
2. Volt will have a 70mpg range and yet its advantageous over the EV1? I don't getit. Either way they've only just released info that they've managed 40mpg. Not that I doubt the 70mpg figure but this is yet to come.

How does the VOLT then have an advantage over the EV1?

I guess you and I and many others too know that it wasnt about lack of technology or poor feasibility at all when they scrapped the EV1 project. It was all about lobby'ing and underhand business cutting techniques by oil companies and other auto majors to save trouble and business. The EV1 proved that we can live on Electric Power alone for city driving.

In North America you'll typically see one person per car with no passengers. I guess a 2 seater would suffice. Think about the interior volume of any 4-5 seater car in India on an average. Its easily lesser than the American average. Are you getting my point. The size factor can actually be worked upon. I'm plainly advocating Electric Power. We've seen it happen before with the EV1. It has worked.

Originally Posted by arunmur

The cost of production of hydrogen is still and hanging issue, as of current situation we have many solutions to this issue.

I agree with you on this one.