“If we can bring costs down by a certain amount, I think we can start mass-production,” President Takeo Fukui said in an interview at its new-model center today in Tochigi prefecture, northeast of Tokyo. for $500 a month. , the company said in a statement. It currently builds gasoline-engine Civics in Thailand.
“We need new lines. S. Honda began production of the FCX Clarity at the center today. The Civic is the only model with a hybrid option now.
Honda plans to add three new models to help raise sales of hybrid vehicles by ninefold to 500,000 units early in the next decade from 55,400 last year, the company said on May 21. The fuel cell stack in the FCX Clarity converts hydrogen(H2) and oxygen (O2) into electricity. S. Fuel cells create electricity in a chemical process that combines hydrogen and oxygen.
Honda plans to lease 200 FCX Clarity vehicles in the U. customer is Ron Yerxa, who produced the Oscar-winning film Little Miss Sunshine. “We would add a hybrid system to a location where we already build a base model,” Fukui said. Honda’s FCX Clarity, a sporty-looking sedan, came off the production line Monday in Tochigi, north of Tokyo.
The carmaker is adding low-pollution models including fuel-cell and gasoline-electric hybrids as record-high oil prices and tougher carbon-emission rules boost demand for cars that use less fuel. ”The FCX Clarity will initially be offered only in California, beginning in July, to take advantage of a network of hydrogen fueling stations being added across the state. in building hybrids. “It’s difficult to fathom what the industry will look like ten years down the road.
In Japan, Honda leases the FCX minivan to 11 central and local government officials with payments of 800,000 yen ($7,384) a month. The electric motor powers the vehicle at low speeds, and the gasoline engine takes over as the car accelerates. Fuel cells produce electricity that can be used as a clean alternativeto gasoline. The assembly line is the first at Honda to be dedicated to building fuel-cell vehicles.
The car, which has a top speed of 105 miles per hour, will be leased for $600 a month, the automaker said. The motor’s battery pack is charged by the gasoline engine and by power regenerated by the brakes. Specifically, producing a hybrid Civic model in Thailand may be an option because emerging markets have high import duties on cars, he said. Emerging Market HybridsHonda may produce hybrid cars in an emerging market by the middle of the next decade, Fukui also said in the interview.
Honda Motor Co. The battery crunch is likely to continue for the rest of the year, since new lines cannot be added to increase production until 2009, said Takeshi Uchiyamada, executive vice president of Toyota Motor, who oversees production at the leading Japanese automaker. Hybrid vehicles combine a conventional gasoline engine with an electric motor. Actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest are also customers.
“There’s still a lot of research that’s left to be done” on fuel-cell cars, said Yuuki Sakurai, who helps manage the equivalent of 5. and Japan over the next three years and has five customers for the car in the U. The company leases 24 units to customers in the U. 7 trillion yen ($53 billion) including Japanese auto stocks.
