2009 Honda FCX Clarity Ride and Drive takeaway

On March 31, 2009, the Honda FCX Clarity was in Columbia for the Hydrogen Expo, I was invited to get behind the wheel. I used (right up until the start of this calendar year) to feel that Hydrogen was a wasted effort, but when you exclude hydrogen combustion cars and only look at fuel cell vehicles like the Clarity and its “competitors” you see an encouraging development. (To date none of the competition is available to the general public; the Clarity is available to normal people in limited volume and geography)

A fuel cell car to me is an Electric Vehicle (EV) but instead of having a large battery that charges from a grid connection, it makes its energy on the fly from an onboard hydrogen supply. A plug-in EV is great for around town, but they do not currently fast-fill practically for long trips. A hydrogen vehicle fills very similarly to the way a compressed natural gas vehicle does, and quick fills are very practical. If the hydrogen is produced from clean supplies rather than fossil fuels, they make great long range EVs, once there is a widespread fueling network like the one we currently have for gasoline.

The FCX Clarity has everything I have grown accustomed to by driving fully loaded mainstream hybrids for the last 4 years, Efficiency, Comfort, Technology, and Unique Style. The first thing I noticed when climbing into the Honda FCX Clarity was the normalcy of it all, there was nothing quirky or gimmicky that stood out. The Bio-Fabric upholstery was inviting and warm looking. The first thing that Tim, the FCXs keeper for today at least, did when was looking ensure the A/C was off was to offer me cooled seats! I took him up on that offer and we rolled the windows down, as it was a beautiful pollen filled day.

Before we even got to heated or cooled seats or A/C or rolling down the windows, we had to first unlock and open the doors. The Clarity uses the same Wave Key that my Civic Hybrid uses. The cool laser cut looking blade, with the remote integrated into the key’s handle, the lock and unlock buttons and the trunk release button. The Clarity is the same cam-back design as the Honda CRX, First and Second Generation Insight, but it is also part sedan, there is a separate trunk. I could not see into the trunk from the back window when standing behind the car. When sitting inside there was a normal coupe styled backlight (rear windshield) and the lower window that I have come to expect on a car with the aero shaped roof. There is another window behind the rear passengers over the trunk it is a really nice look and helps to separate the cargo area from the passenger compartment and adds a bit more of an open feel to the vehicle. The lower window was perfect there was not any rear visibility blocking that I noticed, but the car also has a rear-view camera system with what appears to be parking assist. The car has beautiful LED taillights.

The car is a Fuel Cell Electric hybrid, Honda does not want to call it a hybrid because research shows people with think they can run it off gasoline.

Anyway, back to my 5 min drive. The vehicle combines my Wave Key with the S2000 and my previous vehicle’s shift-by wire gear selector. I put the key in the ignition and turned it to on, then pressed the start button and the car booted quickly and quietly, with just faint sounds of relays clicking and fans whirring, I was actually listening very closely for these sounds and might have missed them if I hadn’t been driving hybrids this long.

After booting the first thing that jumps out at you is the High Resolution version of the Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation system, it is very nice looking. Now it was time to drive. I slid the gear-selector toggle next to the instrument cluster down and to the left from the home position to select drive (very much like my old car). The selector felt weird because I was trying to move it the same way I moved the selector on my old Prius, but later in the trip I started to get the hang of the new layout.

The car rolls silently when I take my foot off the brake, and is just like a gas-electric hybrid running on electric only until Tim makes me go faster, punching the throttle brought forth nothing but pure acceleration and the noise I love from an electric motor winding up very quickly! It also has hints of the noise during braking and full-on braking sounds just like acceleration but the pitch changes in the other direction. After that, I tried to go back to granny-ing it but Tim had me punch it again, this time just a slight whirr and smooth acceleration. Then we came to a red light and I stopped the car like a hypermiler does, and nothing but pure silence, the braking was definitely done with the electric motor but there wasn’t any drop off to standard brakes like I felt in my hybrids when the speed got too slow.

I proceeded to drive it as I would in everyday use; this is a car I would love to get my hands on. The reverse camera is well implemented it takes the new Honda rearview center mounted camera system (like on the new Pilot) and turns it up to 11. There are guides displayed on screen to aid in parking, Tim says not to let it get to the dashed yellow line or I would have a collision. The vehicle does have collision-mitigating braking like on the Acura RL, also the radar cruise control from that vehicle.

Later on I got to ride in the back while my Honda Rep put the car though its street racer test (anyone driving conventionally will accelerate and brake much faster than I do), but this car didn’t allow me to get the kind of frightened can I get when someone is putting a normal car through its paces. I was tossed around a little on sharp turns, and pressed back into my seat on acceleration. Braking was still just as smooth as when I milked every little opportunity for regenerative braking (the trip was not long enough for me to try coasting, finding the spot on the pedal where the car freewheels when in drive).

This is a car of the future. (Photo Gallery Below signature block)