As if. Still the woman once awarded "the best breasts in Hollywood" nod by every hetrosexual male in America is over-the-moon in love with Honda's PR-mobile: the hydrogen fuel-cell-powered Clarity. "Our family is going to pay for the privilege of having the chance to show, by action, a car that is an alternative to gasoline," she told CBS News. Note: "is going to." Yes, CBS and Jamie Lee are hyping the Clarity before it's been delivered. And once again, the mainstream media is happy to talk about hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as if the liquified gas in their tanks is made by zero-emissions pixies. Hello? It takes energy to make hydrogen. And that means CO2 and plenty of it (solar shmolar). While we await numerous opportunities to highlight this inconvenient truth, CBS points out the echt drawback to JLC's Clarity and its hy-powered ilk. "But the real problem with these cars is keeping them filled up – there are very few fueling stations. Even here in Southern California with the greatest concentratrion [sic] of stations, there are still fewer than 20. In the meantime, [Vasilios] Manousiouthakis makes do. His [hydrogen-powered Mercedes] car can only travel 80 miles on a tank of fuel, and the nearest hydrogen station is 10 miles from his home. On this day, the fuel pump is broken. With the nearest hydrogen station another 10 miles away, Manousiouthakis knows his car won't make it. "I need desperately fuel right now. I'm literally on fumes so I cannot get out," he says. It takes two men and a consultant on the phone to solve the problem. "It takes commitment," says Manousiouthakis. Or something.
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Until her Clarity arrives what is she driving now? Probably a Mercedes ML 63? Does anyone have a bigger Carbon footprint than a Hollywood celeb? Is this desire to be the greenest in Hollywood motivated by fashion or guilt? Enquiring minds want to know.
At least JLC has a pair of, uh, Golden Globes. Another celebrity, 24’s Laura Harris, also cut the is in line for her FCX. Any cars left for the non-celebrities?
This is absolutely stupid.
“Our family is going to pay for the privilege of having the chance to show, by action, a car that is an alternative to gasoline.” Right, except it’s a magical car that the average person cannot buy.
She’s also paying $600.00 / month for that privilege, which is 3 times what a nicely equipped mainstream sedan will cost you. That additional $400.00 is 5 times what most people’s monthly gasoline bill is. So it’s a magical car the average person cannot afford to buy.
I’m not going to even get into the energy-to-produce Hydrogen issue.
And finally, I see this all as a moot point- who honestly gives a crap about Hydrogen if we’ve got plug-in hybrids that can run a day’s errands (or at least most of them)? Eventually the market will reach an equilibrium with gas prices.
Why is everyone so negative about alt fuels?
People hate E85 because it’s inefficient and the current infrascructure can’t handle it, people hate hydrogen because it takes energy to produce, and people hate electric because it taxes the grid and only defers energy consumption instead of eliminating it.
But isn’t this the point? You explore new technology and try to make it better. Is it impossible to produce E85 or hydrogen more cheaply? Certainly not; the industries just need support to make their ventures worthwhile. Can our ag industry handle E85 on a mass scale? Sure, they make more corn as the market demands (see vertical farming if you say we can’t make room). Can we build more nuclear/wind/hydro/solar plants? Absolutely.
Bottom line, we’re in the infant stages a new world. Could you imagine people not trying out the microchip because it’s expensive, different, and no one has any software for it? Early adopters are always the intrepid few who see potential and gut it out while the mainstream industries catch up.
I think this Honda test is great. As someone else has posted, Honda has a plan to have refueling stations powered by solar, when available, and off the grid otherwise. This is a test. The fact that few refueling stations will be available is unimportant. These people are paying for these cars; if they didn’t think it was worth it, they wouldn’t participate. Honda is using celebs to get some publicity; good business. Makes a hell of a lot more sense than a hybrid Escalade.
Regular fuels and regular ICE cars will continue ruling the day for some time on. Who knows when these alternative fuel cars will make sense?
Here in Brazil they only make sense due to taxation. Gas gets taxed like, its ass out, so ethanol seems better. In my home state however, they don’t tax alcohol (ethanol)so much less than gas (in reality,E25, oh how’d I like to get some E0 gasoline!!!) so in my case I’ve been just pumping gas. Oh the looks I get from the greenies!! When I tell them F… the gov and until they restore prices to like, ummm, American levels, I’ll continue polluting more. At least I don’t have to go to the station once a week, which I do if I put alcohol into the car.
“Our family is going to pay for the privilege of having the chance to show, by action, a car that is an alternative to gasoline.”
A car can be an alternative to gasoline? Can I go to a Clarity station and pump my tank full of car? What kind of exhaust does burning a Clarity emit?
@Brendino:
Why is everyone so negative about alt fuels?
Because we’re being told to fund it against our will.
You explore new technology and try to make it better.
You explore it. I prefer to spend my money elsewhere.
[T]he industries just need support to make their ventures worthwhile.
The fact that they need support is prima facie evidence that the ventures are not, in fact, worthwhile.
Sure, they make more corn as the market demands.
“The market” isn’t demanding this; government is.
Can we build more nuclear/wind/hydro/solar plants? Absolutely.
The relevant question is not “Can we?” but “Should we?”
Could you imagine people not trying out the microchip because it’s expensive, different, and no one has any software for it?
Microchips didn’t need massive government subsidies to get invented or widely adopted. Unlike alt-fuel boondoggles, the advantages of integrated circuits were legion.
Early adopters are always the intrepid few who see potential and gut it out while the mainstream industries catch up.
Early adopters don’t usually buy their geegaws with other people’s money. They also sometimes have the misfortune to “adopt” something that turns out to be a total waste of money, like HD-DVD.
You want to be an early adopter? Open your wallet. Stop telling everyone else that they have to open theirs.
“Well be going to Cabo in the Gulfstream. Can you airfreight the Clarity? We’d like to have it while we’re there. What? There are no hydrogen filling stations in Cabo? Well, can’t you airfreight some hydrogen at the same time?”
Oh, please. None of you people know Jamie. Happens that she’s a pal of my wife’s, and I like her too. She doesn’t drive an ML63 or fly a G5 to Cabo, and she’s an extremely intelligent woman. Don’t assume that because somebody is a celebrity (and you’re not, it goes without saying) that they’re jerks.
Stephan Wilkinson: I don’t think it’s possible for the commenters to shed their generally negative outlook on all things automotive… so I don’t think you can expect kind words about somebody trying out an alternative fuel vehicle.
Hybrids? uggghhh
Diesels? uggghhh
Volt or Tesla Roadster? uggghhh
E85? uggghhh
Hybrid Diesels? uggghhh
Fuel Cell Cars? uggghhh
1985 Chevy Chevette? Major doses of uggghhh
Turbo Craziness or AMG V12 or W16? yaaaayyyyy
I thought Honda was going to start selling those at-home fueling stations for these things so buyers could somehow convert their own natural gas line into a convenient way to fill up for the day?
loserboy:
just a quick note: I’m guessing that you live in a society where you have massive benefits from the collective works of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. The food on your table, the gasoline in your car, the roads you drive on, etc… is enabled by fossil fuels. Such fossil fuels currently rule the roost and your government and the collective advances they’ve enabled society to make over the past 150 years are mind boggling… and they allow you to sit at a computer and make posts on the internet…
It’s well known, that fossil fuels are a finite resource and that current consumption trends are not sustainable…
So, it’s probably a good idea to look for alternative methods for transporting goods [including food], creating electricity, etc…
As a side exercise, imagine how chaotic life would become if the fuel supply in your home country were cut in 1/2 tomorrow (or in 5 years)… [unless you live off the grid in a cabin away from people]…
Hey, if Jamie Lee Curtis can do for the Clarity what Leonardo DiCaprio did for the Prius, then Honda’s in great shape.
Clarity looks better too, methinks.
A big transportation derived demand for hydrogen fuel in North America could revolutionize the wind energy business.
99%+ of the available high quality wind resources in the US can’t be exploited due to:
A)The lack of high voltage transmission lines in the vicinity.
B)The peak wind resource does not correspond with the system demand for electricity.
Given some water, an access road and a big wind turbine you could electrolyze H2 all day long and truck it to market 50-200 miles.
Oh, please. None of you people know Jamie. Happens that she’s a pal of my wife’s, and I like her too. She doesn’t drive an ML63 or fly a G5 to Cabo, and she’s an extremely intelligent woman. Don’t assume that because somebody is a celebrity (and you’re not, it goes without saying) that they’re jerks.
I dont think she is a jerk, so sorry for that. The point i was making is getting a Clarity when your probably a four or five car family is kinda redundant. Green Chic i think it’s called. Call me back when Billy Bob from Kansas can get a Clarity and use it like a normal car.
I’m a Honda dealer and love the Concept.This sells itself and i find the marketing angle (Jamie does it so so should you) a little depressing.
When pressed for the real reason that she chose to shell (sic) out the 600 dollars per month for the Clarity, Jamie admitted: “I hate the smell of gasoline on my hands; the hydrogen doesn’t smell at all”.
(The previous is a fictional account.)
No offense, Stephan
When pressed for the real reason that she chose to shell (sic) out the 600 dollars per month for the Clarity, Jamie admitted: “I hate the smell of gasoline on my hands; the hydrogen doesn’t smell at all”.
She should’ve moved to New Jersey, they still pump your gas for you out there.
Hydrogen is another media to store energy for EVs – just a substitute for batteries. EV’s take energy to charge batteries and not pixie dust either.
EVs and Fuel Cells do not increase food prices as a fossil fuel substitute. Its main drawback is lack of infrastructure to refuel fuel cell vehicles – however production of hydrogen occurs at the fueling station rather than at a refinery which then needs to then be physically transported using its own fuel to bring to the masses. In addition as our technology increases and we develop cheaper and more efficient wind / solar / geothermal / hyrdo methods of harnessing energy to produce hydrogen and as fuel cells become more efficient it is one of our best options for global impact.
For the time being the primary refueling station for the FCX Clarity will have to use the PHIL home refueling station. The car will be used primarily as a commuting vehicle – its intended purpose (not for long cross country trips).
I’m not old enough but I bet when that fancy “gasoline” and “diesel” was first created and the cars which were very, very low technology at the time – the masses dismissed them and said how do we refuel it and it’s so expensive, etc. 100+ years later and it has permeated our entire society.
The Hydrogen Hoax in full effect.
Loser,
Thanks for that.
Wow. I’m shocked by all the negative reactions to an OEM that is not making prototypes in their garage that they hype to any all will save the world (in 2010 or later). Instead, they’re making a prototype that doesn’t use an ICE and is available to a few hundred lease customers.
That’s going on a limb, right there. A limb that GM, Ford, Chrysler, BMW, M-B, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota claim to be working on as well. Don’t see any prototypes being sold by them? Yeah, me neither.
Honestly, why is that such a bad thing? What is everyone so afraid of? Honda is merely going the distance with a new technology. They think it’s viable and they want to find out if they’re right by getting a couple hundred of them out there for people to try.
I hate to break it to those of you getting all bent out of shape over a $600 lease payment, but in case you didn’t notice it covered insurance as well.
$600 is pretty minor, really. There are millions of Americans who are paying that much each month in gas to commute to and from work to such unheard of destinations like Detroit, Atlanta, Chicago, San Franciso, Houston, and the list goes on and on.
Nice photo.
Currently WHO is making the hydrogen?
Big Oil?
Aren’t we jumping from one frying pan to another?
I’d prefer to NOT get into bed with them again as soon as I can get out.
Remember it is Chevron who currently holds the patents on the large format NiMH that would otherwise be powering a whole generation of EVs RIGHT NOW. They are the ones that sued Panasonic and Toyota to stop the RAV-4EV after GM sold Chevron the patent.
Netrun,
Maybe you should do the math on that claim.
I think you will find that it’s unlikely that “millions” of people are actually commuting that far. Maybe near a million, but not millions. The truth is that gas is likely less than half the total operating cost for most cars on the road today.
You are correct that the $600 price is not out of line to be the first in your neighborhood when they include insurance. I am sure they will have to turn folks away which means the price is not to high at all.
I’m sorry: are we making fun of Jaime Lee for being too much like the Hollywood Prius owners of 1999 or being too naive about the -1 fueling pumps she’s going to have access to when (if) she gets her new car (i.e. Honda’s gonna make her build one in downtown Santa Monica with her own money)?
And to those that bemoan that the FCX Clarity is too elitist for Everyman: isn’t that part of the point? Why would Honda lease these cars to a single parent family that can’t afford the lease terms and won’t have the time and resources to do all that is necessary to participate in the project? Isn’t it a good thing that Honda’s tricking the rich people into testing their product so that when the poor people do get to have it, the fuel cell car won’t explode whenever you turn it on?
And really, to those that smack their lips and just say “No” to government subsidized technology initiatives left to die on the vine by the private industry: maybe I can trick you into reading this?
Um, do you have that vidcap from “Trading Places”?
You know what I mean.
Loserboy:
Microchips didn’t need massive government subsidies to get invented or widely adopted. Unlike alt-fuel boondoggles, the advantages of integrated circuits were legion.
That’s not true, not a word of it. The Minuteman missile program and the Apollo program paid for the early ramp up of microchips and mass production technology. Those were government programs. Massive, expensive ones. Government subsidies. The advantages of integrated circuits were theoretical, not widely understood, and, in some quarters, doubted.
(Should we talk about other high technology that required massive government subsidies, like the internet?)
When you leave energy policy in the hands of private corporations, you get E85. You like E85, right?
Manousiouthakis knows his car won’t make it. “I need desperately fuel right now. I’m literally on fumes so I cannot get out,” he says.
That’s hilarious. Hydrogen cars always run on fumes.
Not so fast, Faster.
Government expenditures on practical applications such as military or infrastructure or even space exploration are not the same as “subsidies”.
There is a HUGE difference in the government going to a private company, or even working with a private company to build something useful, and giving a grant to a corporation, or subsidizing a particular behavior because it thinks it’s good for the general welfare. The former often gets us useful stuff, as discussed, but the latter has a much lower return on investment. One can make a good argument that the former is necessary, but the latter just isn’t. Sorry.