Honda Maintaining 200-Unit Lease Sales Targets for FCX Clarity, Showroom Sales in 2015
08 September 2009
Honda Motor Co continues to target lease of sales of about 200 of its FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicles combined in the US and Japan in its first three years, Sachito Fujimoto, FCX Clarity’s chief project manager, told Reuters at the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit.
Honda began production of the FCX Clarity (earlier post) in June 2008. The FCX Clarity utilizes Honda’s 100 kW V Flow Stack in combination with a 288V lithium-ion battery pack and a single hydrogen storage tank (4.1 kg at 5000 psi/34.5 MPa) to provide a driving range of up to 240 miles. (Earlier post.)
Honda currently has 10 units of the FCX Clarity on the road in the US and Japan; it plans to have the cars ready for sale in showrooms by 2015
...the most difficult part is how to raise productivity, in particular for building the core part, fuel cells, as Honda is on the last and toughest part of the road toward commercialization, Sachito Fujimoto, FCX Clarity’s chief project manager, said on Tuesday.
“Everyday there’s progress,” Fujimoto said at the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit...It’s my own dream to make fuel cell vehicles for the ordinary motorist. I would like to make the age of the fuel cell cars begin in earnest as early as possible,” he said in an interview.
About fuel costs for the Tesla roadster, Model S, Honda FCX Clarity and Toyota Prius.
To go 100 miles
- Prius uses 2 gallons of gas. At 3 USD per gallon the total cost is 6 USD.
- Tesla roadster uses 22kWh. At 10 cents per kWh total cost is 2.2 USD.
- Model S uses 26 kWh. At 10 cents per kWh total cost is 2.6 USD.
- Honda FCX Clarity uses (4.1/240)*100 = 1.7 kg hydrogen. Made from electrolysis of water you need minimum 50 kWh (more likely 60 kWh) to produce 1 kg of compressed hydrogen. If we completely ignore the very substantial capital cost involved with building a hydrogen gas stations and also ignore the very substantial costs of maintaining the hydrogen producing equipment at the hydrogen gas station the total cost of driving a Honda FCX 100 miles is (1.7*50*0.1) = 8.5 USD.
Unless hydrogen cars get substantially less expensive than gasoline cars they will not sell at all and they can’t be used as commercial vehicles that depend more on inexpensive fuel than on inexpensive vehicles.
The coming wave of hybrids, PHEVs and EVs will kill the hydrogen car even before it was born.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 08 September 2009 at 06:43 AM
Henrik,
The assumptions you made and facts you left out in your comment are painful to read.
Until there is adequate technology to reduce the cost of electrolysis of water, hydrogen will come from natural gas, which significantly reduces the cost of hydrogen (around $3 per gge).
You also fail to acknowledge why people are looking to move to hybrids, battery cars, and fuel cells - to have less of a negative impact on the environment. Even with hydrogen coming from natural gas, well-to-wheels it pollutes less than hybrids (powered by gas) and battery cars (powered mostly by electricity from coal in the US).
The hydrogen fuel cell car can be a reality if people today look farther than 10 years down the road. Honda and Toyota seem to be making plans for both the near and far future.
Posted by: me.yahoo.com/a/tzw6Ydkin_V.JQNrXE8EfygMKNjPElbA | 08 September 2009 at 08:19 AM
Henrik remember if the oil company is making h2 they are either using cheap nat gas cheap biomass or they are using cheap electricity. So its NOT 10 cents per kwh its 1 or less. Much like production of aluminum is only done where power is cheap.
They say they can get 3-3.5 bucks a kg and yes they can do that even with electricity IF they produce in a cheap zone and pipe it for 1 buck a kg.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 08 September 2009 at 08:48 AM
The 3 USD per kg of hydrogen made from reformed natural gas is the cost of a very large scale facility at an oil refinery. It is not a relevant price for hydrogen sold at a refueling station for cars. Such a refueling station needs highly compressed hydrogen that is highly purified and it either needs to be produced in a small scale facility on-site which is expensive or produced centrally with subsequent huge distribution costs as hydrogen is voluminous and dangerous.
As a result hydrogen from a gas station that uses on-site electrolysis is probably cheaper than hydrogen from natural gas. The website link below is to a Danish company that sells hydrogen fueling stations. To quote from their webpage “H2 Logic provides onsite hydrogen production solutions for industrial gas and transport fuel applications. Alkaline and PEM electrolysers from H2 Logic enables onsite production of hydrogen as an alternative to delivered hydrogen. Onsite production results in a significant lower hydrogen cost and improves gas purity compared to delivered hydrogen.”
http://www.h2logic.com/com/hydrogenproduction.asp
Posted by: Account Deleted | 08 September 2009 at 09:01 AM
Henrik the 3-3.5 bucks per is the at the pump cost.
They intend to get that low a price by using cheaper equipment designed to make far more h2 then current designs.. And greatly reduced transport costs. These factors are the MAIN cost of h2.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 08 September 2009 at 09:23 AM
The present state of the most successful HFC car, the Honda FCX and infrastructure as of Oct 2008.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-the-hydrogen-car-running-on-empty
18 fuel stations in Ca, 3 in LA
est $200 000 fuel cell
$5 to $10 /kilogram for hydrogen
4 kilogram tank storage
79 mpg, or 33.5 km/L (of gasoline equivalent) city
68 mpg (29 km/l) highway
Posted by: aym | 10 September 2009 at 10:52 AM