Last month I reported on some Car & Driver spy photos that indicated Honda would be building a hybrid-only car that looked almost exactly like the Prius. Today, Honda confirmed that those spy photos were genuine — and that their designers don’t have any creativity.
Car and Driver has reported on an upcoming as-yet-unnamed Honda hybrid electric vehicle aimed squarely at unseating Toyota as the undisputed king of hybrids.
Although we can’t reproduce the photos here due to copyright issues, suffice it to say that the Honda test model looks almost exactly like a Prius. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery — but in this case Honda appears to have crossed the line to outright copycat.
With the exception of the headlight and taillight shapes, the Honda is a carbon copy.
I mean really, I’d expect the Honda designers to have a bit more creativity.
Check out the original Car and Driver article and pictures.
One of the main barriers to the widespread adoption of fuel cell vehicles has been the lack of an adequate hydrogen-refueling infrastructure. Beyond a handful of hydrogen stations, such as the one near Los Angeles International Airport, there just isn’t anywhere to fill up.
This has resulted in a kind of chicken-and-egg situation, where car companies, such as fuel-cell pioneers Honda, are reluctant to mass-produce hydrogen-powered cars until a comprehensive refueling system is established, and infrastructure providers won’t move until there are enough cars to make stations economically viable.
Step forward ITM Power, a UK company that has developed a hydrogen refueling station that could be installed at home, providing a ready-made solution for fuel-cell car owners.
In order to cut fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in the delivery of new automobiles, Honda has launched a 400-car fleet of new Auto-Max railcars to carry its products from factory to city. Currently, Honda transports 82 percent of its Honda and Acura cars by rail, more than another other automaker.
The new, multi-level rail cars hold up to 22 vehicles, both cars and trucks, to reduce unused space. Honda says conventional rail cars hold only 10 trucks.
Honda has started rolling the first US specification FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell sedans off a production line in Japan to be delivered to a small group of hand-picked high-profile California test customers. Leases to these customers, including Jamie Lee Curtis, are scheduled to begin in July.
The combined sales plan for the US and Japan calls for a few dozen to be leased the first year with about 200 total units leased over the next three years.
Today, twenty of the fastest cars on Earth will line up at the start of round 7 of the Formula 1 World Championship at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, to do battle for the biggest prize in world motor sport.
Capable of accelerating to 200 mph, and coming back to a complete standstill 12 seconds flat, a modern F1 car represents the pinnacle of automotive technology, precisely the reason that big name Japanese manufacturers Toyota and Honda have entered the sport as constructors in recent years.
Formula 1 has never been cheap - even the smallest teams have annual budgets in excess of $100 million to field two cars - but considering the resources available to the new Japanese teams, who are rumoured to have spent almost $2 billion between them on F1 in the past four years, one might expect a good chance of the Japanese national anthem being played when the constructors trophy is handed out this afternoon.
Later this year (see the timeline below), we will finally begin to see an influx of new model diesels in the United States. While diesels make up 50% of the market share of vehicles in Europe, they’re still trying to shrug off the stigma of being dirty, noisy beasts here in the US. So what changed?
Hybrid vehicles make great use of regenerative braking and the efficiencies of electric motors for lower speeds and stop-and-go driving. Some hybrids are so good that they have better MPG ratings in the city than they do on the highway. But out on the highway, a hybrid doesn’t fare any better than a vehicle with standard gas engine. Regenerative braking is the way hybrids recover energy during stop-and-go driving, but at highway speeds, there is nothing helping feed back energy into the system, and hybrids are at par with non-hybrids.
Honda has now come out with a demonstration vehicle (using a Japan-only Honda Stream hybrid) that recaptures waste heat from the gasoline engine and runs a small Rankine cycle generator from that to recharge the battery pack.
I've been a doubter of fuel cell technology for a very long time. Commercialization has always seemed just "over the next hill" with promises of "we're almost there" silencing the eager in the backseat. Before going green was cool, and when gas purchases didn't require a second thought, a hydrogen economy seemed too expensive, too laborious, and not worth the investment or effort. My, how things have changed.
Fuel cells are now poised to
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Proving that marketing is ever opportunistic in the face of growing environmentalism, Honda unveiled a Formula One racing car devoid of sponsorship logos and covered with an image of planet Earth. The campaign comes as Honda wishes to draw more attention to the environment and encourage people to donate to relevant charities.
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