The very first set of keys for Honda's brand new FCX Clarity have been delivered to film producer Ron Yerxa and Annette Ballester. The duo took delivery of their new hydrogen fuel cell-powered FCX Clarity on Friday, July 25, 2008 at Honda of Santa Monica. Now that the first production second-gen FCX has been delivered, we'd imagine that Jon Spallino, Jim Salomon, Laura Harris, and Jamie Lee Curtis will be getting phone calls of their own in no time at all. Mr. Spallino has actually been driving an FCX for the last three years, though it was one of Honda's first generation efforts. The new car is worlds better, featuring a new vertical flow fuel cell stack delivering a 270 mile range.
Despite the fact that Honda has delivered its first set of FCX Clarity keys, don't go rushing to your nearest Honda dealership to get your own. There are only three U.S. dealerships certified to lease hydrogen Hondas at the moment, and all of them are in the far-left state. So, if you want one... perhaps a move to Southern Cal. is in order.


[Source: Honda]

A quick Google search is all that is required to find hundreds of stories of people who claim to have increased their fuel mileage by installing a hydrogen generator which extracts hydrogen and oxygen from water and funnels the gas into the engine. Some of the claims are pretty wild, and the Japanese company Genepax has again lit a fire under the topic of running a car on water. While the Genepax car uses a conventional fuel cell, most of the "kits" available on the Internet introduce a bit of gas into the engine which is then combusted along with the liquid gasoline.

It is, of course, natural to feel a desire to buy into the hype promised by these systems. The truth, though, is that large fuel economy gains are highly unlikely. Popular Mechanics has decided to build themselves one of these systems for testing. The mag intends to install the finished product in an automobile and report back. We're keenly interested in their findings, though we're pretty sure we already know what will happen. Stay tuned.

[Source Popular Mechanics]

At the recent Honda FCX event at Laguna Seca Raceway, AutoblogGreen had the opportunity to spend some time talking to Dr. Joan Ogden and Stephen Ellis. Dr. Ogden is Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California, Davis and an Associate Energy Policy Analyst and Co-Director of the Hydrogen Pathway Program at the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis). Mr. Ellis is the manager of Fuel Cell and Alternative Fuel marketing for American Honda Motor Co. We talked about what is probably the most controversial aspect of hydrogen use as a fuel, the relative environmental merits of hydrogen vs. gas and hybrid vehicles.

AutoblogGreen: During Ben Knight's (VP of Honda R&D America) presentation, he talked about the efficiency of hydrogen in terms of well to wheel and tank to wheel efficiency. What would go into that measurement?

Dr. Ogden: You start with the raw materials, a feed stock like natural gas or crude oil which come out the ground and those have to be processed and transported, in the case of crude oil you take it to a refinery. The trucks take that to the refueling stations and there is energy consumption and emissions at each step in that process. Once it's in the car, it's used there and that's well to wheel. With hydrogen, let's start with hydrogen from natural gas. At the natural gas well you take it out, process it a little bit, compress it, stick in the pipeline, and take it to the hydrogen plant. There you convert it, compress the hydrogen, and either put that in a truck or send it out by pipeline.

The discussion continues after the jump.