<img src=http://autoweek.com/images/articles/102055>
2005 Honda FCX

Icebox: Honda beats the big chill with its fuel cell car
KEVIN A. WILSON
Published Date: 4/4/05

2005 HONDA FCX
ON SALE: Now
PRICE: Only available by lease to select customers
POWERTRAIN: 107-hp, 201-lb-ft AC synchronous electric motor; fwd (electricity from 86-kW hydrogen fuel cell stack), direct drive
CURB WEIGHT: 3680 lbs
0 to 60 MPH: 11 seconds (est.)

It’s not often that awaking to snow and 5-degree weather in the first week of March can be called lucky, but we were fortunate to catch that combination at just the right time with a Honda FCX fuel cell car.

That Honda let us take one home—“Just drive it around like a car”—is a first. We’ve driven most of the fuel cell prototypes built by the industry in the past 15 years, but never before without constraints, such as a ride-along engineer monitoring our every move or reminding us that what feels like a little econobox is rarer and more expensive to build than an Enzo.

The one concession this time was that the FCX was delivered and picked up on a flatbed to avoid exhausting its hydrogen supply, two tanks totaling 8.25 pounds of the gas stored at 5000 psi. The tank structure is integrated into the chassis and rear suspension. The contents are supposed to be good for 190 miles of travel, about a 20 percent improvement on the previous version. Fill your shoe with helium if you want the advertised range, though.

In our enthusiastic winter drive, after 60 miles of lead-footin’, the dashboard gauge showed only 60 miles of range remaining. According to the federal Department of Energy website, the nearest hydrogen filling station is more than 60 miles from my driveway, so you can see why the car industry is developing home refueling stations that create hydrogen from natural gas or solar energy.

The real bragging point for this second-generation FCX—indeed, it’s emblazoned on its exterior panels—is that it will run in sub-zero temperatures, down to -4 Fahrenheit. Cold-weather starts have been a persistent problem for fuel cells. The FCX isn’t ready for Arctic testing, but it advances the state of the art.

Honda’s new fuel cell stack is assembled with an aromatic electrolytic membrane instead of the industry-standard fluorine membrane. And it replaces the thick carbon plates with thinner stamped metal ones (if you don’t understand, don’t worry, your kids will, as surely as you could tell the difference between a 450-cfm Holley and sequential fuel injection). Honda fills 18 pages with tiny type to explain how it all works.

The upshot: This fuel cell stack is almost half the size of the previous model’s, and makes twice as much power. It also is cheaper to manufacture and operates in a wider range of temperatures (we’re not volunteering to find the other extreme, at 203 degrees F). Two copies of this second-gen version have been leased to the New York state government since November. Both the ultra-capacitor and the motor have been upgraded from the first-generation, too, but the fuel cell stack is the key to broadening the car’s geographic range outside the Sun Belt.

That snowy, cold March morning in Michigan shows the claims are true. You start the FCX like this: Put your foot on the brake and turn the key on. That’s it. Then you just watch the dashboard as it boots up. On a sunny afternoon at our offices, this took five or 10 seconds. In the driveway at home the next morning (it was left outside overnight), it took 25 seconds on the stopwatch before we got the message that it was okay to drive away. We’ve waited longer for a diesel’s glow plugs to preheat its combustion chambers, though not recently.

We’ve also waited longer for some future-tech cars to reach highway speeds from a stop, but here, too, the latest FCX feels ready for prime time. In normal operation, the fuel cell makes more power than the car needs, so the FCX stows excess electricity in an ultra-capacitor. This ultra-capacitor can dump a huge charge off to the 107-hp motor in response to the driver’s demand for immediate acceleration, supplementing the output from the fuel cell. The electric motor will offer up 201 lb-ft of torque instantly, so the initial surge of acceleration is strong.

Even with four adults aboard, we squealed the teeny front tires at stop signs and when exiting turns. At the grocery, we found cargo space is restricted by the ultra-capacitor stowed on the back of the rear seat. The cabin heater works well; its fan is louder than the powertrain, but not louder than the tire and suspension noise.

We’d have done more tests, but were in danger of running out of the most abundant element in the universe. For now, we can conclude fuel cell cars will be ready if the hydrogen supply ever shows up. And you won’t have to move to Arizona to drive one, either.

Excerpt from Autoweek.com

Hydrogen looks like the way to go. I could never figure out with the electric cars which was was worse for the enviornment. The fact the we had emissions from gasoline, or leaking acid filled batteries. I still remember the BMW that was hydrogen powered. That thing was bad ass. This might be the new wave if you have extra cash to buy a filling station. I will just wait till I can fill my tank from my garden hose!

I dont know. There seems to be so many different forms of transportation comign out now. I for one would like to see an electromagnetic type engine. Remember those simple engines we built back in middle school using like three magnets and you could get the one to spin based on the polarity of the other two. I could see cars being powered by this someday. As for gas I hope it is around for awhile, becuase I love the smell of gas in my V8 in the morning...

Jeremy