JAPAN: Honda unveils environmentally friendly car that will be carry G8 leaders at upcoming summit

Record ID: 464980

  • Title: JAPAN: Honda unveils environmentally friendly car that will be carry G8 leaders at upcoming summit
  • Date: 6th July 2008
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) SACHITO FUJIMOTO SENIOR CHIEF ENGINEER HONDA R&D CO, SAYING: "We hope to have the production capacity within at least ten years to produce this car at under 10 million yen ($94,000 U.S. dollar). Therefore, I think you and I can look forward to waking up one day in the next ten years and stepping into this very car in the morning." HONDA ENGINEER DRIVING THE FCX CLARITY SPEEDOMETER ON THE CAR AT 54 KM PER HOUR (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) KENICHIRO KIMURA, FCX CLARITY POWER PLANT, CHIEF ENGINEER SAYING: "It got a lot of torque so the acceleration actually feels like a V6 3000cc engine." INTERIOR OF CAR AS HONDA ENGINEER DRIVES THROUGH THE STREETS OF TOKYO MORE OF CAR ON STREETS
  • Embargoed: 21st July 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Transport,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA303YSGJQMGWKK4GN79JTKLIRH
  • Story Text: Honda's FCX Clarity is slick, street-wise, environmentally friendly and will be one of a fleet of such cars transporting Group of Eight nation leaders at the upcoming summit in northern Japan.
    The sporty fuel-cell sedan, came off the production line in Tochigi, north of Tokyo on June 16 and will make its debut at the July 7-9 G8 summit in Hokkaido.
    Fuel-cell vehicles are widely considered the ultimate longer-term alternative to today's conventional cars as they run on an inexhaustible and cheaper source of fuel -- hydrogen, have no harmful tail-pipe emissions, and do not compromise driving performance.
    The main hurdles for their proliferation are a lack of fuelling stations and the high cost of development.
    The vehicle, which uses a lithium-ion battery, can run 620 km (385 miles) on a single fuelling as measured under Japan's fuel efficiency test method, and has a top speed of 160 km per hour (99 mph).
    The FCX Clarity will be sold through a newly established fuel-cell vehicle dealership network in the United States from July. In Japan, sales are slated to start in autumn.
    While only two cars will be available for the leaders' summit to ride, the automaker is targeting lease sales of about 200 FCX Clarity cars in the first three years in both Japan and the United States.
    Among its first five private customers are actress Jamie Lee Curtis and U.S. filmmaker Christopher Guest, Honda added.
    Among automakers, Honda and Toyota Motor Corp were the world's first to put a fuel-cell vehicle on the road in December 2002, and have since been in a tight race to prepare them for mass-commercialization.
    Toyota said earlier this month that it has developed an advanced fuel-cell vehicle that can run for 830 km on a single tank of hydrogen.
    Mitsubishi Motors Corp has said it would bring its i-MiEV rechargeable electric minicar to market in Japan next year, while plans are also underway to begin fleet testing at some U.S. power companies as early as this autumn.
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