Lean, mean, clean machines

Apparently, Honda’s "Power of Dreams" vehicles aren’t limited to those powered by traditional energy sources alone. Because recently, the carmaker has been building a couple of environment-friendly models that make use of alternative fuels — if not alternative powerplants altogether — which could be the stuff technological dreams are made of.

Most radical of these vehicles is the Honda FCX. A two-door hatchback, the FCX is the first fuel cell vehicle (FCV) to be certified for regular commercial use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board, and is currently being used by customers in the U.S. and Japan.

Since Honda’s delivery of five FCX units to the city government of Los Angeles in December 2002, the company has steadily been progressing in the development of its fuel cell technology. Late last month, the carmaker announced a significant breakthrough that may bring widespread fuel cell use closer to reality — and the marketplace.

Of course, like any new technology, the fuel cell stack has kinks that need to be ironed out before it is deemed suitable for widespread use, one of which is cold-weather operation. Honda, however, has just announced that its fuel cell stack used in an FCX model has successfully completed a series of cold weather tests.

FCVs have no internal combustion engines beneath its sheetmetals, its wheels driven instead by electric motors. But unlike electric vehicles (golf carts, for instance), FCVs do not rely on a battery for the electric motor to get its juice from. An FCV runs on electricity generated by a fuel cell stack that uses hydrogen and oxygen as its energy source. In the fuel cell stack, a chemical reaction that’s derived from hydrogen and oxygen is converted into electrical energy, which then powers the electric motor, which in turn drives the wheels. Where conventional cars have internal combustion engines under the hood, an FCV packs a fuel cell stack instead. A fuel cell stack, by the way, has emissions that are nothing but pure water (Hydrogen and oxygen forms what?).

According to a Honda news release, the FCX tests were conducted at Honda’s test track and on public roads in Hokkaido, Japan. As part of the program, the FCX successfully started after being parked outside overnight in freezing temperatures as low as negative 11 degrees Celsius. Test drives conducted immediately afterward demonstrated the vehicle’s excellent cold weather driving performance — results that further take the FCX closer to mainstream, mass-market use.

Which is good news. Because the FCX appears to be a commendably sorted-out vehicle already. At the Honda proving grounds in Tochigi in October last year, we were able to test-drive an FCX model. Save for a taller-than-average body (to accommodate the electric motor and huge hydrogen tanks tucked under the seat and floors), the FCX looks, drives and feel like any regular small sedan that are presently sold in the market. You can recognize the Honda bits and pieces, and the quality is definitely on a par with its mainstream siblings — or most modern sedans, for that matter. No concept "mule" the FCX is. Fact is, if it were not for the single "Drive" setting on the gearshift (the electric motor produces ample torque rendering a conventional five-speed manual or automatic transmission unnecessary), you’d never get the idea there is anything different about the car. Which only illustrates how far in the development process Honda’s alternative power vehicles are.

Take the new Accord Hybrid as another example.

Last week, Honda president and CEO Takeo Fukui announced the mass-market introduction within the year of the V6 Accord Hybrid, a gasoline-electric power hybrid version of the company’s popular mid-size sedan. The Accord Hybrid has the distinction of being the first V6 application of Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist (IMA), or the company’s fuel/electric motor hybrid technology. The latest Accord will also be the first hybrid vehicle to use Variable Cylinder Management (VCM) system. Developed by Honda, VCM deactivates three of the engine’s six cylinders under certain conditions where the use of all six is unnecessary — like in highway cruising — to deliver better fuel efficiency with no sacrifice in performance.

With the introduction of the Accord Hybrid, Honda increases to three the number of models featuring IMA hybrid technology. Honda was the first carmaker to introduce gas-electric hybrid technology to U.S. consumers when it launched the Insight in December 1999, which was followed by the Civic Hybrid — considered as the first mainstream hybrid vehicle — in March 2002.

Recently, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) cited the Insight and yet another Civic variant, the natural gas-powered GX, as the top two "greenest" vehicles for 2004 in its annual rating of vehicle emissions and fuel efficiency performance. The Civic GX was judged as "America’s Greenest Car" for its superb fuel economy and zero emissions. The Civic Hybrid also ranked high in the ACEEE rating, where Honda vehicles took five out of the top 12 spots. Going by this record, the Accord Hybrid then is expected to land a top spot in the list soon.

Yet the Accord Hybrid promises more too, as Honda touts the car fuses 240-horsepower V6 performance with the fuel efficiency of a 1600cc Civic. Now that’s lean, mean and definitely green.