The Honda FCX

Honda FCX Concept fuel cell vehicle

Fuel cell vehicle's in this generation or the next?

With the world being more aware of global warming and fossil fuels slowly running out car manufactures are forced to design new cars and think of new ways of producing ZEV (zero emission vehicles). Honda's answer to the world's problem is the Honda FCX Concept fuel cell vehicle. This car is still inits testing stages but Honda are way ahead of the rest by announcing it will start its production of its hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in 3-4years but will this be ready in such a short space of time because change does not always happen the way its planned too. Will i be driving one anytime soon or will my children be the ones that get to drive it because producing hydrogen is not cheap. The Honda FCX Concept runs purely on hydrogen and oxygen, it produces 127bhp, it does around 350miles and has the max speed of 100mph not bad considering it produces waste in the form of nothing but..... water.

With the fast growing technology that we have today company's are always finding new ways of developing sustainable technology's and hydrogen fuel cell vehicle's are one of them. With the help of society which always plays a major part in the outcome of products company's like Honda can produce vehicle's such as the Honda FCX Concept. Fuel cells work like battery's as they run on electrical power but that power has to be replenished and not recharged. itis the car of the future.

Honda has led the automotive industry and other company's have followed they built the the first Honda FCX back in 2002 it produced 80bhp, does 170miles and has the top speed of 93mph. 3 years later in 2005 the second generation was born it produced 107bhp (33% increase) and did 190miles (20% increase) while the top speed stayed the same. The 2007 Honda FCX Concept is the latest Fuel cell vehicle from Honda the shape was redesigned to a sedan which made it bigger, it contains a different fuel cell stack layout which increased the efficiency, in the old vehicles the stack was horizontally meaning that the water had to flow on a flat surface were as the the new stack is vertical for a better water flow improving the vehicles performance.

Today other company's such as BMW have there fuel cell vehicles called the BMW Hydrogen 7 and Ford have there focus FCV, there are many more company's that have there own fuel cell vehicles while others have hybrid vehicles which is a start. I think that some hybrid cars for example the Lexus LS 600h do not deserve to be called environmentally friendly vehicles because it does 30mpg and gives 220g/km of Emissions, compared to that of a Toyota Aygo which does around 60mpg and produces only 109g/km of emissions which is double the mpg and half the emissions. This means that because the Lexus LS 600h is a hybrid car it can drive FREE in London without paying congestion charge while the Toyota Aygo still has to pay the £8 congestion charge. I think its just a way for the rich people to skip paying the congestion charges and it makes them feel like they have done there bit saving the world by helping the environment i suggest they buy a fuel cell vehicle when it becomes available.
In February 2007 my local newspaper published an article about my home town of Greenwich, they say a proposal has been made to make a congestion charging zone in Greenwich. As i live just outside of Greenwich will this mean that i have to pay with the petrol vehicle that i am currently driving now. or will i be better off buying a fuel cell vehicle in 3-4years time that is more economically friendly and means i wont have to pay anything. I am a driver myself for more then 2years and will hopefully drive fuel cell vehicles myself but currently there are 0 fueling stations for the UK at the moment while the US have 122 hydrogen fueling stations. So do we watch America make the changes first and follow them as they emit the most greenhouse gases in the world, or can we start today by educating the country about fuel cell vehicle's. LPG is an example of an alternative fuel that never really took off because the demand was not good enough i think that fuel cells will be different.

I think that the The Honda FCX Concept fuel cell vehicle is a great idea but fuel cell vehicles alone can not change the world, itis none the less a step in the right direction. The FCX is Honda's next generation fuel cell vehicle but will the world be ready for change in 3-4years time i think it will take much longer to prepare the world, they still have time to improve the FCX Concept but will fueling stations be ready when the car rolls off the production line. Honda say that there fuel cell vehicle's will last up to 20years compared to 10years for normal cars. Right now we have to use our fossil fuels to produce fuel cells because hydrogen currently comes from coal, electrolysis (which separates chemicals) or natural gas so we will still have to consume our planets resources of fossil fuels to produce hydrogen as electrolysis is still too expensive. But fuel cells will leave no emissions for future generations and can be used to power mobile phones, laptops and even homes one day. We as a society will have to decide the future for the next generations.

I plan to do more research on fuel cells by using the internet and by reading books on the subject. i will also try and contact Honda by email to ask questions about the future of the Honda FCX concept and how they plan to advertise their fuel cell vehicle. i will go to a Honda show room to talk to someone about there cars and i will keep an eye on the Honda FCX Concept as there still will be changes made to it before production.

Images
www.fareastgizmos.com/2007/06/?p=2
www.egmcartech.com/
http://world.honda.com/FuelCell/
Sources
http://world.honda.com/FuelCell/
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/01/honda_to_put_hy.html