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28.10.07

Honda pledges to build hydrogen car in ’08 

Honda’s Takeo Fukui has said that he will put the world’s first hydrogen fuel-cell car on the market by next year, with a sticker price of around £50,000. The car emits water vapour as its “exhaust”.
   This is fabulous thinking: rather than hold the technology back, as all the other automakers are doing, Honda is going full steam ahead and pioneering.
   In one move, it’s overcome any slowdown in the Japanese car market and made an impact in an eco-conscious world.
   And £50,000 isn’t a lot to pay for a large sedan that’s brimming with technological advancements.
   Asked how the new Honda FCX might overcome the absence of hydrogen filling stations, Mr Fukui gave a great answer that shows the company has really considered its car in a historical context: ‘When the car was invented, countries weren’t full of petrol stations. When the demand is there it will happen.’
   It makes Red China’s copying of western automotive models seem outmoded and silly, considering that it had nearly a carte blanche with which to play in the 1980s and 1990s. That could have meant jumping ahead of the rest of the world without having the worries of old plant costs to contend with.
   It also shows that brands will only get you so far: major leaps ahead like this, without reference to what the establishment might think, can spell success when it taps in to the Zeitgeist. And Honda has detected that the world in the late-2000s is still going to be obsessed with global warming and climate change. It has detected that there is a rebellion against brands that do not help the planet. And it might have also considered that there will be a rationalization in the brands we deal with, so why not get ahead now?

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I would disagree with you. L50,000 is a LOT of money. Because of that price, this car will only sell to the rich who also want to show their concern for the environment. Because there will be so few of these cars sold, energy companies won't invest in hydrogen fuel stations. Hydrogen fuel cell cars won't take off until they are affordable for the average New Zealander or American. The thing that caused the automobile to take off in the U.S. was Henry Ford's building of an automobile that the average American could afford to buy. This in turn created the demand for gas stations.

I suspect this car is more about getting good press and showing that the company is doing something that is environmentally friendly.  
Finally! Bring it on and take the money away from the terrorists.  
Ron, £50,000 isn’t a lot for a car that is going to compete with, say, the Audi A8, but it would be an awful lot if the FCX winds up a little larger than a Camry. People are quite happy to part with that sum partly because the Audi has an aluminium bodyshell and is a full-sized car. Similar people—granted, they will likely be the eco-types—will help make the FCX a success. However, I agree with you on your other points: the Model T (and the Fiat 500, Toyota Corolla and others) took off because average people could afford the vehicles; and that the FCX is designed as a halo car for the entire Honda company.
   I also do agree with you on your point about hydrogen stations. But I add one rider: if Honda proves that this technology works, others will follow and there will be cheaper cars that will run on hydrogen, which in turn will create the infrastructure. The Toyota Prius is a good first step toward electric cars, and others now use similar technology (including Nissan and Ford); 15 years ago, I don’t think we could have foreseen this. The technology in the FCX could well spread the same way.
   Randy: amen! Less money for those terrorist bastards can only be a good thing.  
its a great idea of selling these cars into the market, but on contrary, its price is too high, actually there are sites that inform us on how we can convert our car into one of these hydro cars, its less cheaper than manufactured ones.  
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