Earth Equity News

World's First Hydrogen-Powered Fuel Cell Vehicle Rolls off Production Line. By Martin Fackler, NYTimes, June 17, 2008. "It looks like an ordinary family sedan [and] costs more to build than a Ferrari... On Monday, Honda celebrated the start of production of its FCX Clarity, the world's first hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicle intended for mass production. In a ceremony... the first assembly-line FCX Clarity rolled out to the applause of hundreds of Honda employees... Honda will make just 200 of the futuristic vehicles over the next three years, but said it eventually planned to increase production volumes, especially as hydrogen filling stations became more common. On Monday, Honda announced its first five customers, who included the actress Jamie Lee Curtis... 'Basically, we can mass produce these now,' said Kazuaki Umezu, head of Honda's Automobile New Model Center, where the FCX Clarity is built. 'We are waiting for the infrastructure to catch up'... Fuel cells have an advantage over electric cars, whose batteries take hours to recharge and use electricity, which, in the case of the U.S., China and many other countries, is often produced by coal-burning power plants."