At the 2007 Los Angeles auto show, Honda raised the bar for hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles by unveiling the 2009 FCX Clarity, a production-ready vehicle presently being leased by a select group of customers. One year later, the company has attempted to upstage itself with the introduction of the Honda FC Sport concept, essentially a reinterpretation of the FCX Clarity as a sports car.
In much the same way the FCX Clarity stands out as a unique vehicle while still strongly resembling other Honda sedans, the FC Sport is obviously unlike any other car we've seen from Honda and yet is still identifiable with the FCX Clarity. The key difference is in the sharpness of the car's lines. While the FCX Clarity and FC Sport share the same basic shape, the FCX Clarity is smooth and rounded, whereas the FC Sport has gone the opposite direction, instead using straight lights and sharp geometric shapes. While the side profiles are nearly the same, the nose and tail of the FC Sport give it away as an all-new car.
This radical, futuristic styling is meant to reflect the car's performance orientation. Where the FCX Clarity demonstrated how a hydrogen-fuel-cell car can be practical and easy to live with, the FC Sport seeks to demonstrate the performance possibilities of an electrically driven, hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered car. Honda says the driving idea behind the design of the FC Sport was to showcase the possibilities of an electrically driven supercar using a powerful electric motor, perfect weight distribution, and lightweight materials -- all while producing zero emissions.
Passengers in the FC Sport sit in a triangular pattern, similar to that of the McLaren F1 supercar. The driver sits in the middle of the vehicle, much as does a race-car driver, while two passengers sit behind and to the sides. The fuel cell has been moved from between the driver's and passenger's seats in the FCX Clarity to between the rear passengers' seats in the FC Sport and is mounted as low as possible to give the car a low center of gravity. The battery pack is also mounted low and amidships, while the electric motor is mounted just ahead of the rear axle. This keeps a majority of the vehicle's weight between the axles and as close as possible to the ground, giving the car a low center of gravity and what Honda says is optimal weight balance for the best possible handling. Two hydrogen tanks, likely the same 5000psi units as used in the FCX Clarity, sit directly above the rear axle and cooling radiators for the fuel cell hide in the rear bodywork.
Where the FCX Clarity is practical, the FC Sport is decidedly not. The three passengers enter and exit through a front-hinged canopy, and there doesn't appear to be any space for luggage. That isn't the point, though. American Honda executive vice president John Mendel sums it up best: "The Honda FC Sport explores how to satisfy automotive performance enthusiasts in a world beyond petroleum. People who love sports cars will still have a reason to love them in a hydrogen-powered future."
Despite its supercar aspirations, the FC Sport is still an eco-friendly car at heart. Honda claims that when the source and conversion of hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles are taken into account, the FCX Clarity is responsible for just one-third the well-to-wheel emissions of a gasoline-powered car and half the emissions of a good hybrid. The FC Sport utilizes the same powertrain as the FCX Clarity, albeit in a different orientation, so it should produce similar numbers. In fact, the FC Sport is likely to have a greater range, as well as better performance, than the FCX Clarity, thanks to the extensive use of lightweight materials. The body panels, for example, are expected to use plant-derived bio-plastics.
Shortly after the Clarity made its debut last year, Motor Trend technical editor Kim Reynolds was able to test-drive the car and came away impressed with the production-level fit and finish, the flawless performance of the fuel cell, and the ease of living with the hydrogen-powered sedan. As the FC Sport is still a concept, we'll likely not be able to test it as we did the FCX Clarity.
Some say hydrogen-powered cars are an expensive exercise in futility and that efficient production and delivery of hydrogen will never materialize. Those people do not work at Honda. By spending the massive amount of money needed to engineer multiple models of hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered cars, Honda believes it has demonstrated the technology does have a future. Only time will tell if it has bet wisely.
