Honda achieves first fuel-cell ceritification
26 July 2002: The Honda FCX has become the first fuel-cell vehicle in the world to receive government certification, paving the way for commercial use of such vehicles.
The US Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board have certified the hydrogen-powered Honda FCX as meeting all applicable standards.
Honda says it will start a lease program for a limited number of FCXs in the US and Japan this year, involving about 30 fuel-cell vehicles in California and Tokyo, two locations with access to a hydrogen fuel supply infrastructure.
The company said it currently has no plans for mass-market sales of fuel-cell vehicles because significant cost, technology and infrastructure issues remain before the vehicles can be mass marketed.
Honda's announcement came just weeks after a similar decision from Toyota, which plans to begin leasing fuel-cell vehicles at the end of this year, also one year ahead of its initial schedule.
Toyota claims full scale commercialization of its passenger fuel-cell vehicles will begin in 2010 at the earliest.
The news comes at a time when DaimlerChrysler has released a new method of storing and delivering hydrogen to fuel-cell passenger vehicles; sodium borohydride, also known as borax or, more commonly soap.
Fuel-cell vehicles, which are powered by hydrogen and produce no emissions, are eventually expected to become an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional motor vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.
The FCX, loaded with 160 litres of pressurized hydrogen, can travel 355 kilometres on a single charge of its fuel cell.
July 2002