Honda invited us on a trip to Japan. The agenda included an introduction to their 2030 vision, their response to the rapid changes in the global business environment, the move to alternate fuels, a visit to the Tokyo Motor Show 2017 and a quick trip to Mount Fuji.
About the 2030 Vision first. Honda aims to electrify two-thirds of their global sales by the year 2030. Out of these, 50% are going to be hybrids of some form, while 15% will be the zero emission vehicles. The electrified vehicles include all forms of hybrid, fuel cell and electric vehicles. Hybrids and plug-in hybrids are going to be the main players by the year 2030. Honda will also put a central focus on the plug-in hybrid system.
For the Indian market, Honda also announced that they will have six big launches in the next three years. However, all the six models will be brought in as CKD units. No battery or pure electric cars planned for now, but they are considering hybrid models. Regarding electric cars in India, the company representatives said that they are not sure about the plan yet as they need to study the policy in India.
The first activity they had planned for us was a sneak peek at the future - a quick drive of the hybrid and fuel cell vehicles they make. They took us to the Twin Ring Motegi racetrack for the drive. It was mainly for the Honda Clarity, including its fuel cell and plug-in hybrid variants.
Honda Clarity is a full sized 5-seater sedan almost the size of an Accord. This car is not coming to India, it was just a sneak peek into the future of automobiles. In various markets the Honda Clarity has three different variants, a pure electric vehicle, a plug-in petrol hybrid and the most complex of them all - the fuel cell based electric vehicle. It is powered by hydrogen which charges the batteries which in turn supplies electricity to the electric motors of the car.
I was excited to drive the fuel cell based car. The drive was not on the main racetrack, but on a small track outside and we had two laps with the fuel cell and one lap with the plug-in hybrid with the top speed capped at 60 km/h. So, this isn’t detailed or even a quick review on the car. How is it to drive? The variants felt identical in acceleration. The acceleration till 60 was fast - a good thing about electric vehicles is the instant power delivery and the almost silent operation that feels surreal. The throttle response was crisp and the performance was fast. This is all that I can say from the few hundred meters we had. We were given the Clarity plug-in in EV mode, so it drove like a pure electric vehicle. The new Clarity PHEV has an increased output and a better capacity of the battery which helps the car with an EV range exceeding 100 km.
How the fuel cell car makes power:
Utilization of space is very efficient in the cabin; the layout is simple and the center console is dominated by a large touchscreen type infotainment system. The Climate Control retains the physical buttons. The seating is higher than an Accord, so getting in and out is an easy task:
Compared to an Accord, even at the rear, the higher seating is much more comfortable and the cabin feels more spacious too:
There is no traditional gear / mode selector, instead there are buttons to choose the drive, reverse, park modes:
Infotainment system has a lot of information available, however this car had the Japanese language selected so I could not make much out of the information displayed:
The boot of the fuel cell based Clarity, about as much space as a typical hybrid, I guess a little bit more:
The black part on the boot door is the see-through glass, not sure how much of help it will be of in day to day driving in the era of reverse sensors and cameras:
The fuel cell car can be used to generate electricity for household use. Honda had connected a power-generating unit and attached a coffee maker to display the typical practical usage expected out of it:
This is the engine bay of the fuel cell car:
The stickers on the front fenders are one of the ways to distinguish between the various variants:
Now, this is the plug-in hybrid, where the layout looks similar to an Accord hybrid that is sold in our country. The main difference here is that you can charge the car using an electric socket. The car has a capability to run 100+ km on purely electric power before it will need the help of the petrol engine to charge the batteries again:
Plug-in charge socket mounted on the front fender opens like a typical fuel filler flap. While the fuel cell based car has such a flap at the rear to give out power, this one is to take in power to charge the batteries:
One of the plug-in cars we were given to drive:
Fuel cell car in action:
An EV sports car based on the Clarity that makes almost twice the power:
We were given a hot lap in the passenger seats. This car feels really fast, like a real sports car without the engine sound. This would have been one amazing car to drive on a racetrack:
While we were waiting for turns to drive the Clarity cars, Honda gave us an option to drive these hybrid cars on a fixed course on the outer roads of the Twin Ring track. Sadly, the maximum permitted speed was just 30 km/h:
Honda Odyssey MPV was by far the plushest and the most refined amongst the hybrids offered on the drive. Everything from refinement to steering to interiors was top notch:
Honda City is called Honda Grace in Japan:
Honda Jazz is Honda Fit like in all other markets:
And this is the Honda Freed, a mid-size MPV:
Interesting thing about Grace, Fit and Freed is that they all use the same powertrain and they felt almost identical to drive.