EDITORIAL: Eco-friendly cars
2008/8/30
This summer, a new Japanese car made its debut as a street-legal vehicle in California. It looks like an ordinary sedan, but it is fueled by hydrogen, not gasoline. The vehicle runs on a motor powered by a fuel cell that generates electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen from ordinary air to produce a chemical reaction for combustion. The only byproduct of the process is water. It doesn't produce carbon dioxide, which causes global warming.
This futuristic new vehicle is Honda Motor Co.'s FCX Clarity, which is drawing much international attention as the world's first hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle intended for mass production. The FCX Clarity, powered by a newly developed small-sized fuel cell, can seat four persons and run at a maximum speed of 160 kph. It can drive some 600 kilometers on a full tank of hydrogen.
But fuel-cell vehicles, often touted as the ultimate eco-cars, still face many hurdles. one is their prohibitive price tags. With a sales price of 100 million yen, the FCX Clarity is unlikely to go on the market anytime soon, according to Honda. Like in California, when the car is introduced in Japan this autumn, it will only be offered through a special leasing program for customers. (213 words)
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