During a demonstration drive of Honda's fuel cell-powered FCX Concept, the Japanese automaker announced that it plans to start "limited marketing" of a production vehicle based on the concept in 2008 to Japan and the U.S. The FCX isn't a new concept, but it has been improved over the previous concept vehicle.
According to an article in Winding Road, the newest FCX concept has 30 percent more travel range thanks to an updated fuel cell stack that is also 20 percent smaller and 30 percent lighter. This is an extremely efficient vehicle, about 60 percent, to be exact. That's three-times better than a gasoline-powered vehicle, and twice that of a hybrid. All these percentages add up to give Honda a good chance against American automakers. Be afraid, Big Three, be very afraid.
What does Honda mean by "limited marketing"? This most likely means that it will be "test seeding with a small amount of consumers and businesses," similar to what GM plans to do with its new test fleet of fuel cell-powered versions of the Chevrolet Equinox in 2007. However, these GM vehicles are only expected to have a 50,000 mile lifespan. That doesn't seem very optimistic, does it, Chevy?
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