is it still a hydrogen vehicle?

It must be:
"* a single 5,000-psi hydrogen storage tank with 10 percent additional hydrogen capacity than the previous model."

I like this. I wish American car companies were looking more toward the future like this.

This is what the new Accord should have looked like. At least it keeps with the lines of the Civic.

I am not sure we should be using Hydrogen as our next fuel source. We started using gas over 100 years ago and now everyone is using gas and we are running out.

What happens 100 years from now when everyone converts to Hydrogen?

Why not use a solar array and air compression???

Hydrogen is NOT a fuel source...it's an energy storage mechanism just like a battery. The main source of hydrogen is water. Cracking the hydrogen off the water molecule takes more energy than you get by reacting it in a fuel cell.

So, sure...it's the greenest car in the world until you count all the fossil fuel that was burned to produce the electricity to crack the hydrogen. What if we count all the energy required to refrigerate the hydrogen to cryogenic temperatures? What if we count the energy required to pump the supercooled liquid hydrogen into a 5000psi tank?

We're in the hole here as far as energy efficiency goes, this is no benefit whatsoever until all the energy required to get the hydrogen into the car is obtained from a renewable source.

The hydrogen can be obtained by using Hydroelectric, solar, other renewable sources or Nuclear power. Effectively decreasing the emissions to make it to zero.

Making/storing hydrogen may not be the "most energy efficient" but it will be the "greenest" source of "fuel" at the moment. Which reduces the amount of CO, CO2, NOX's, and other pollutants that are currently released by our petrol and diesel engines into the air.

So, its not just carbon that the hydrogen fuel cells would be negating. This might not be the "answer," but its a step in the right direction.

I say, "Way to go Honda!" for their forward thinking.

Once we can acquire hydrogen without burning a bunch of other fuel to get it, then we'll have the horses AS WELL as the cart. This is provided that hydrogen will be the next "gasoline". For all I know, some genius will develop a fusion reactor the size of a milk crate.

Good one Honda, you're halfway there.

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/10/sve_launches_cl.html

R&D on the battery funded and done etc... by Hydro-Quebec. All they need to do is make it prettier (and obviously continue its development into a more performing vehicle etc etc). There is NO reason (other than aesthetic) why anyone living in a city or who does not travel long distances on a daily basis should not buy this car.

Hydro power ftw.

Kudos to Honda for making this work ! Hydrogen as a fuel is a cool idea - and unfortunately all but useless outside a major metropolitan area.
True, 270 miles will do most commuters just fine, but what happens when you want take a road trip, or visit the out-of-town relatives ? You'd have to own a second car, or fly - which certainly offsets the green quotient.

Petroleum-based fuels, i,.e gasoline are going to be the standard for a while - all the infrastructure is in place. For heaven sake, Honda has a car that will do 68mpg right now - on gas alone ! The tech is available right now to make cars that do 100 - 200 mpg easily.

Let's keep working on alternate fuel - but perfect the current system first !!

Andrew - Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. Presently, the universe is 74% Hydrogen - I don't think we will run out as quickly as oil! Solar panels are to expensive, and the effeciency is something to desire. By the way, solar energy comes from Hydrogen :).

Hydrogen is the way to go. Only problem with Hydrogen is storage, it must be kept below -423F (the boiling point of Hydrogen). So we need energy to keep it that cold - where do we get the energy for that? Perhaps solar power - who knows.

Is this the ultimate green car?

Ummm no. It's a shame how much oil is burned to process hydrogen.
Yeah it makes you feel good when water comes out the tail pipe of the car, but it is just removing the polution from the customers to the producers.

I guess out of sight is out of mind.

Looks nice, but I REALLY hate the high-rake hoodline. It makes it EXTREMELY difficult to park, not to mention somewhat unnerving to drive, since you can't tell where the front of the car ends. It's the same problem that the Honda Civic and the Toyota Prius. While I appreciate the high mileage, I found both of those cars difficult to drive in "city" bumper-to-bumper traffic because of the lack of visibility of the exterior of the car. I'm not asking for those huge expanses of hood and trunk (like the old slab-sided Lincolns), but some physical suggestion of where the car begins and ends.

Mr K:

just because hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universer does not mean that it is found in abundancy in it elemental form on earth. Almost all hydrogen on earth is found in the form of water, and it takes energy to separate those bonds, which right now the energy is mostly comming from natural gas.

Overall, an interesting product from Honda. I won't rehash some of the previous problems mentioned about obtaining Hydrogen and storage concerns. However, it is nice to see car companies experimenting with alternative fuels. It is a baby step, but a step never-the-less in the right direction of lowering dependance on oil.

Hey Idiot, no need to be so rude.

My point was that oil will run out, and unless we find another planet that had water and plants we will be out of oil. Hydrogen on the other hand is found everywhere in whatever form. I do know that we need to extract hydrogen, but it is still everywhere, not like oil. So you don't need to worry about running out of hydrogen.

Actualy breaking down water into Hydrogen is insanely inefficent and very expensive, Where the Hydrogen is coming from to run these suposed wonders is from Natural Gas, CH4 to be exact, so each molecule you decompose produces 4 hydrogen atoms. Guess what we had cars that burnt natrual gas and ran very very clean, something like 20 years ago.

At this point Hydrogen is not a solution beside where would you buy it from and how much would it cost? Unless there are some major advances it is far less viable then the other non viable solution alcohol. Greenhouse gases wont be an issue either as we will run out of the ability to make in them meaningful amounts this century. So for all you greenies know it all's out there you better start finding some solutions and give up on the fear mongering BS.

Some people commenting negatively about the technology apparently skipped the press release. Less than half the CO2 emission of a normal car from well to wheel, which means including the production of hydrogen, seems like a giant leap to me. And it will only get better as new hydrogen production technologies are developed and improved.
If Honda decides to roll the technology out in Europe, this will be my next car. I love the looks.

Some time ago I read that Honda was going to have a gizmo in your garage. From it you will get electricity for your home, hydrogen for your car and hot water for the house. Now I read nothing about this.. so far. Of course it will cost you on natural gas, but it could be quite economic compared with the over 3 USD on gas we have now.

where is the excess power to make hydrogen going to come from California power grid is MAXED out and much of the reserve power stations in the southwest are coal so unless there is a green power breakthrough or NUKES get built more coal needs to be burned

storing hydrogen isnt fun, even a small leak can reverse joule thompson and ignite without needing a spark. Not to mention the energy density blows on hydrogen

Its still far better energy balance wise to use all this energy to crack hydrogen, compress/liquify/store it and instead charge a battery and just run an electric vehicle. Which is what the hydrogen fuel cell does at the end anyways: makes electricity for an electric motor without the efficiency robbing steps and hydrogen logistical nightmares

Can't wait for automakers to start making cars like z06 using fuel cells only then i will be convinced of the technology's maturity....

Umm.. why can't we just use electricity rather than hydrogen?

The damn thing has batteries in it already. If you take out the hydrogen and throw in an electric engine, the whole damn thing would run pretty much the same, except you'd have to charge it.

Then again, anyone else know if you can even get hydrogen at a gas pump yet? :P

Kudos to Honda. No, it's not fast, but hey, I'm a geek too. Particle Exchange Membrane fuel cells are around 40% efficient, as opposed to an internal combustion engine which is around 20%. Everything else being equal that is doubling the efficiency.

Hydrogen is a great fuel. Our planet is covered with it. Jupiter is covered with it. Fuel cells put it right back out of the tailpipe and back into the ecosystem. It's a closed loop. The only trick is to find a clean hydrolysys process. This can be solar, hydro, fission/fusion (hell fusion would be NICE for a lot of things) and even human-powered.

The reason for a PEM fuel cell in the car is because our battery technology is crap. It is a way of extending the range. Once we have batteries that can double or triple our current energy density, we can have electric-only cars with 500 mile range. At this point we can generate the electricity any way we want at stationary power plants.

On a final note, for half of the cost of the Iraq war (which is hundreds of Billions), we could have installed an infrastructure that would let us not give a crap about that region in the first place. Oops, did I say that out loud?

Here's an interesting fact - Ballard Power (a fuel cell leader for decades) has just sold their automotive fuel cell assets. Why did they do this? Because there was no money in it. Why wasn't there any money to be made here? Because hydrogen production is hopelessly inefficient. While it's true that we're surrounded by hydrogen molecules, little of it is in a usable form. The hydrogen needs to be extracted through the use of electricity generated mainly from fossil fuels and you simply don't get as much energy out as you put in. Then you need to pressurize the hydrogen (more energy required) and transport it to fueling stations ($$$). Hydro is an alternative source of electricity - hands up anyone who wants to dam more wilderness at the cost of billions. Nuclear is another possibility - hands up everyone who wants a reactor in their backyard. Solar, wind, thermal, wave, etc. are other very localized and expensive sources of electricity. Heck, anyone who invents a truly efficient solar cell will rule the world! Why is it so appealing to the masses to have nothing but water drip from their tailpipes when a thousand miles away there's a power plant happily destroying the environment to inefficiently provide the hydrogen from which the water is extracted? The same argument applies to ethanol. Corn is a renewable resource, but you need fossil fuel pesticides and fertilizers to grow corn on the scale required. Then you need to transport the ethanol by fuel burning tankers to the fueling station since ethanol can't be piped. Result? More energy consumed than generated.

@booyah:

....and internal combustion engines using fossil fuels are the MOST INEFFICIENT OF ALL. Only 20% of the fuel burned gets used for motive purposes. The rest is heat and mechanical losses. Just about any of the new power technologies is a step up from that. There are many links in the power chain from mass-producer to consumer. An improvement in just one link is still an improvement.

Further funding and development can make them even better. The government needs to step up to the plate and start coughing up some federal resources like laboratories and college research grants. We need to be taking our energy security seriously.

Judging by your post that slams just about everything (without a single positive suggestion), you seem to be advocating a "stay the course" or "wait and see" attitude. I hope I am wrong.

Kell,

I don't disagree with you at all. I'd love to see an alternative to the polluting, inefficient engines we currently have. I'm all for further research into alternative power sources. What I am saying is that the hydrogen fuel cell isn't ready for primetime yet and it's "greeness" is currently more attributable to marketing hype than technical achievement. Take a look at companies that were leaders in automotive fuel cell development only a few years ago - they're now concentrating on commercial and industrial applications instead of automotive. The sad fact is that the inefficient internal combustion engine everyone loves to hate is still more efficient than hydrogen fuel power once you factor in the energy consumption across the whole supply chain - from fuel production, distribution, to final consumption.
As other posters have stated, the real holy grail here is a better storage unit (battery). Then you wouldn't have to worry about cloudless or windless days and electricity would be much more viable as an alternative power source. One of the great advantages of fossil fuel, hydro, and nuclear power plants is that they have ready access (for now) to the raw materials they need, and are able to reliably and consistently provide power to the grid. I'm actually a big supporter of nuclear power, but we haven't built a new nuclear plant in North America in how many years? I think ethanol is a good alternative too - but not in North America. Sugar cane produces about eight times more energy by weight than corn and is a part of the solution in places like Brazil.
Again, I'm all in favor of alternative energy as long as it's supported by science and hard facts and not emotion and hype.

To Ignatius's remark..

People today dont have the time to wait for electric cars to charge. Everyone is in a hurry to get to a certain place at a certain time. What if theres and emergency and you have to get somewhere quick and your cars not charged all the way? Where as a gasoline or hydrogen car you could stop at a gas station on the way to get fuel. Good job Honda. And yes, like electric, creating hydrogen and the electric batteris is killing the enviorment, but if the batteries and hydrogen can me made from something like wind power.. there will be virtually zero emissions in the making and using of electricity and hyrdogen.