The exterior design of the Clarity Fuel Cell is heavily influenced by its need to prioritise aerodynamics, while LED headlights and 18-inch aluminium wheels accentuate the futuristic look.
Advertisement
Honda aims to initially sell 200 units annually of the vehicle, called Clarity Fuel Cell, with government agencies and corporate fleets booking the first year’s production run, Kiyoshi Shimizu, chief engineer of the vehicle, said in an interview before the unveiling of the model at the Tokyo auto show today.
He added: “We don’t have a model yet, but … as the character of our technology favors larger cars, our model will probably be something like a long distance auto, a larger sedan”.
Jung at BMW said it was unlikely that BMW and Toyota would produce a fuel cell auto together, as the two companies target different segments and customers. Whereas Toyota’s current Mirai fuel cell vehicle has a range of 700 km, the future BMW model’s range will be even further.
The company is bypassing production of plug-in electric cars while working on them behind the scenes – and among Japanese peers, it’s letting Nissan plow the way but for all anyone knows, Toyota may one day decide to join in when it sees a market case it’s happy with. Hydrogen fuel cells give the vehicle its power and can drive up to 435 miles of range in a single fill.
BMW uses a 700 bar CGH2 storage vessel or a 350 bar BMW patented cryogenic pressure storage vessel. With a fuel stack that is one third smaller than previously, all its circuitry fits under the hood leaving more room for the hydrogen tanks. Toyota’s hydrogen auto, the Mirai, was launched at the end of 2014.
The latest FCV has a fuel cell stack that has been downsized by 33 per cent compared to the previous version of the fuel cell stack, but with an output of more than 100kW, which is a ~60 per cent improvement.
Advertisement
Carmakers still face the hurdle of a lack of hydrogen fueling stations, which are costly to build and operate without subsidies, as well as the high costs of fuel stacks. Countries like the United States, Germany, China, South Korea and Japan are all accelerating their growth of automotive hydrogen fuel cell infrastructures.
