What's the news?
Honda will be bringing the FCV Concept to this week's LA Auto Show. Unlike most previous fuel cell concepts, this one is seriously set for production, as Honda has promised to bring it to the market by mid-2016. It'll be a rival to the likes of the upcoming Hyundai fuel cell vehicle, Toyota's just-announced Mirai and a rumoured BMW i5 fuel cell car.
The FCV moves fuel cell tech on a serious notch. Honda claims that the stack of fuel cells is a third smaller and lighter than before, but 60 per cent more efficient, giving the FCV a range of 700km on full hydrogen tanks and a three-minute fuel-up time. All of which, combined with the fuel cell's only-water-vapour emissions, makes it serious competition for the hordes of electric cars also due on the market. Mind you, even by 2016, Honda will be looking to sell these only in small numbers. With sales initially planned for Japan, followed by the US and Europe, it will only be offered in areas that have a hydrogen fuelling infrastructure, which, last time we checked, isn't Ireland.
It means we miss out on the other part of the FCV Concept's cleverness, a thing Honda calls the External Power Feeder, a box that allows owners hook the FCV up to their houses so that the fuel cell can be used as a generator to pump electrical power into the houses in the event of a power cut or some other emergency. Clever stuff.
Is any of this really realistic?
Who knows? Hydrogen power has been supposedly 'just around the corner' for some time now, but given the seriousness with which so many car makers are now treating it, perhaps we really are on the cusp of a H2 revolution. Honda's FCV won't be cheap, probably around €65,000 if it ever comes here at all, but it could just be amongst the first of the cars we'll truly drive in the future.