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Posted by Happy Valley on :
 
Honda rolls out new zero-emission car
By TOMOKO A. HOSAKA, Associated Press Writer Posted Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:31am PDT

Canadian actress Laura Harris reacts during an interview by reporters about the new FCX Clarity at a Honda Motor Co. plant in Takanezawa, Tochigi prefecture (state) Monday, June 16, 2008. The Japanese automaker has begun commercial production of its new zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell car, called the FCX Clarity. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)
TAKANEZAWA, Japan - Honda's new zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell car rolled off a Japanese production line Monday and is headed to Southern California, where Hollywood is already abuzz over the latest splash in green motoring.

The FCX Clarity, which runs on hydrogen and electricity, emits only water and none of the noxious fumes believed to induce global warming. It is also two times more energy efficient than a gas-electric hybrid and three times that of a standard gasoline-powered car, the company says.

Japan's third biggest automaker expects to lease out a "few dozen" units this year and about 200 units within three years. In California, a three-year lease will run $600 a month, which includes maintenance and collision coverage.

Among the first customers are actress Jamie Lee Curtis and filmmaker husband Christopher Guest, actress Laura Harris, film producer Ron Yerxa, as well as businessmen Jon Spallino and Jim Salomon.

"It's so smooth," said Harris, who played villainness Marie Warner on the hit TV show "24" and was flown over by Honda for the ceremony. "It's like a future machine, but it's not."

The FCX Clarity is an improvement of its previous-generation fuel cell vehicle, the FCX, introduced in 2005.

A breakthrough in the design of the fuel cell stack, which is the unit that powers the car's motor, allowed engineers to lighten the body, expand the interior and increase efficiency, Honda said.

The fuel cell draws on energy synthesized through a chemical reaction between hydrogen gas and oxygen in the air, and a lithium-ion battery pack provides supplemental power. The FCX Clarity has a range of about 270-miles per tank with hydrogen consumption equivalent to 74 miles per gallon, according to the carmaker.

The 3,600-pound vehicle can reach speeds up to 100 miles per hour.

John Mendel, executive vice president of America Honda Motor Co., said at a morning ceremony it was "an especially significant day for American Honda as we plant firm footsteps toward the mainstreaming of fuel cell cars."

The biggest obstacles standing in the way of wider adoption of fuel cell vehicles are cost and the dearth of hydrogen fuel stations. For the Clarity's release in California, Honda said it received 50,000 applications through its website but could only consider those living near stations in Torrance, Santa Monica and Irvine.

Initially, however, the Clarity will go only to a chosen few starting July and then launch in Japan this fall.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for a statewide network of hydrogen stations, but progress has been slow.

The state has also recently relaxed a mandate for the number of zero-emission cars it aims to have on roads. By 2014, automakers must now sell 7,500 electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, a reduction of 70 percent.

Spallino, who currently drives Honda's older FCX and was also flown in for the ceremony, said he will use the Clarity to drive to and from work and for destinations within the Los Angeles area. The small number of hydrogen fuel stations is the "single limiting factor" for fuel cell vehicles, he said.

"It's more comfortable, and it handles well," said Spallino of Redondo Beach. "It's got everything. You're not sacrificing anything except range."

The world's major automakers have been making heavy investments in fuel cells and other alternative fuel vehicles amid climbing oil prices and concerns about climate change.

Although Honda Motor Co. was the first Japanese automaker to launch a gas-electric hybrid vehicle in the U.S. in 1999, it has been outpaced by the dominance of Toyota's popular Prius.

Toyota announced in May that it has sold more than 1 million Prius hybrids, while both the Honda Insight and the hybrid Accord have been discontinued due to poor sales.

Honda also plans to launch a gas-electric hybrid-only model, as well as hybrid versions of the Civic, the sporty CR-Z and Fit subcompact.

Toyota has announced that it would launch a plug-in hybrid with next-generation lithium-ion batteries by 2010 and a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle later in Japan later this year.

U.S. carmaker General Motors Corp. plans to introduce a Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric vehicle in 2010. It also introduced a test-fleet of hydrogen fuel cell Equinox SUVs.

Honda has no plans for a plug-in electric vehicle. President Takeo Fukui said he does not believe current battery technology is good enough to develop a feasible car.

The company has not revealed how much each car costs to make, and it is unclear when, or if, the car will be available for mass-market sales. Takeo has set a target for 2018, but meeting that goal will depend on whether Honda can significantly lower development and assembly costs as well as market reaction to fuel cells.


http://green.yahoo.com/news/ap/20080616/ap_on_bi_ge/japan_honda.html
 
Posted by cottonjim on :
 
"It's like a future machine, but it's not."

HUHH!!!!! [Confused]
 
Posted by bond006 on :
 
Good move in the right direction. To bad it is not GM or Ford But thats the way it is when the republicans throw our educational system into the dark ages and tell us its for our own good. Brainless idiots
 
Posted by glassman on :
 
GM is working on fuel cells and REFUELING STATIONS:

General Motors working on new hydrogen stations
Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:41pm EDT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - General Motors Corp said on Wednesday it was partnering with Clean Energy Fuels Corp on a new hydrogen refueling station in Los Angeles that the companies hope will be the first of many.


The new fueling station will be used by drivers taking part in GM's Los Angeles-area test of its Chevy Equinox fuel-cell-powered car, the company said.


http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1137873620080611
 
Posted by CashCowMoo on :
 
Funny, I remember saying the same thing back in 2005 when I came home from Ar Ramadi. I predicted 4-5 dollars a gallon, and a lot of people thought I was just talkin hot air and nobody really paid attention. I said that back in 1995 BILL CLINTON should have opened up ANWAR, and everyone thought that if we did it meant the death of polar bears. Funny...you pour oil from a well on grass and it actually will be a deeper green because oil is purely natural from the ground and is a fertilizer. Oil is not a toxic chemical like certain wackos want you to think. Ten years ago if we would have drilled on our own resources we may have seen some relief at the pump by now.

THIS WAS PREDICTED 10 YEARS AGO. Efforts to curb it were blocked by Democrats in the SENATE...check the voting record .....its on file. OFFSHORE DRILLING should be up to the STATES to decide....not the federal government. We have 84 BILLION barrels in reserves off our coast that are RESTRICTED/OFF LIMITS thanks to certain politicians bought by certain lobbyists. Ten years ago if we could have had drilled them.....You want lower gas prices? Get rid of the fuel tax, and start drilling in the gulf of Mexico. I actually like Obama, but if you want him to win be prepared to pay higher taxes on gas, income, food, capital gains, and everything else. He has proposed a tax increase on EVERYTHING if elected. The problem with the opposition is McCain really has no idea what he is doing!

I wonder why people cry about oil so much when the cost of medicine is so high. Too many worry about Exxon when Pfizer is killing the retirement funds of so many seniors. The "big bad oil companies" are maxed out on production while health insurance companies skate by under the heat of the radar with hardly any regulation. The majority of Americans have been bred to assoiate oil companies as bad as a DUI. There is no education in this propoganda. Scaremongering, demonization, and inaccurate numbers are being leveraged in public arguments as fact. This is absurd.

I also wonder why there is no looting in Iowa in the local general store when historic flood waters hit compared to New Orleans. Has anyone thought about that? When the hurricanes hit in Louisiana there were thugs shooting guns at rescue helicopters, and when the floods of the same magnitude hit Iowa people went in and helped their neighboors instead of shooting them. Also...funny how the Alaska OIL pipeline runs across the state and nobody cries about it. In fact, endangered animals find refuge near and underneath it because of the heat it provides. That pipeline actually increases Alaskan wildlife reproduction (see http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/)

People really need to educate themselves on this before crying a river over it.
The lack of wit make me sick, and the lack of knowledge on the issues and the motivation to do anything about it is appalling.

There are plenty of other things out there that are politically incorrect to talk about...also known as PC, and it is time they are addressed. A spade is a spade.

Anyway...im actually in a great mood im just sick of the crybabies!


--Cash
 
Posted by glassman on :
 
The lack of wit make me sick, and the lack of knowledge on the issues and the motivation to do anything about it is appalling.


well CCM, i can only offer this response, when YOU have children? teach them to be skeptical early on, but not to lose faith in the very few that really do "get it"... work hard to become one of them that do "get it" and don't judge the marching morons too harshly, they can't do any better with what they have, and besides? we still need somebody to take out the trash... [Wink]

EXXON is selling all of their retail outlets... change is coming. big change.

even tho the big 5 oil co's still spend a lot of money on new oil-field development? they have, more or less stopped significant new field development, and left the business to the smaller oil co's. they are not dumb, so why have they done this?
 
Posted by glassman on :
 
I also wonder why there is no looting in Iowa in the local general store when historic flood waters hit compared to New Orleans. Has anyone thought about that? When the hurricanes hit in Louisiana there were thugs shooting guns at rescue helicopters, and when the floods of the same magnitude hit Iowa people went in and helped their neighboors instead of shooting them.

part of the difference here is that the response has been completely different.
look at the search hits for mandatory evacuations:

http://news.google.com/news?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&chan nel=s&hl=en&q=mandatory%20evacuations&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn

it's a huge difference.and it's primarily due to the fact of what happened in Rita and Katrina:

Mandatory evacuation

"A lot of people don't understand that when the county judge or city mayor calls for a mandatory evacuation, that is the law," said Precinct 2 Commissioner Willie Stark. "Texas never had mandatory evacuations before Governor Rick Perry signed that bill, and people still think it's their option. It's not."


http://www.jaspernewsboy.com/news/2008/0611/News/020.html


IMO? mandatory evacuations are unconstitutional.

we are beginning to become a police state. BIG BROTHER says jump and everybody says how high....

next time a big 'caine comes into the gulf and they mandatorily evacuate people and the 'caine doesn't make landfall? everybody will be asking why they should have to spend 2000$ + (on their credit cards ) to evacuate just because some Govt official is nervous...

and if you make public transport and housing available? it will cost the govts BILLIONS.

if you are MANDATORILY EVACUTED? the Govt is taking the financial responsibility...

look up Unfunded Mandates and see how hot the arguments are...
On 15 March 1995, the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) was enacted, setting up procedures to keep congress from imposing costs on states without appropriating funds. The UMRA requires analysis of any bill expected to cost state, tribunal, or local governments more that US$50 million. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) must perform this analysis. The same type of analysis is required for bills projected to cost the private sector US$100 million or more.

If a mandate is expected to cost lower levels of government or the private sector more than US$100 million, house and senate committees are required to show where funding will come from to offset these costs. If a committee fails to provide this information, the bill can be removed from consideration. However, a majority vote can keep such a bill alive, resulting in an expensive unfunded mandate.

Furthermore, the UMRA requires consultation with state, local, and tribunal governments about any proposed laws or regulations that may include an unfunded mandate. Assessments must be performed for such proposals. If assessments are not performed, the particular law or regulation is subject to judicial review.

 
Posted by SeekingFreedom on :
 
I also wonder why there is no looting in Iowa in the local general store when historic flood waters hit compared to New Orleans. Has anyone thought about that? When the hurricanes hit in Louisiana there were thugs shooting guns at rescue helicopters, and when the floods of the same magnitude hit Iowa people went in and helped their neighboors instead of shooting them.

Different breed, CashCow. Different breed.
 
Posted by glassman on :
 
Different breed, CashCow. Different breed.

LOL... yep, instead of looting at the retail level? this breed goes wholesale...
 


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