Takashi Moriya

DEVELOPMENT OF THE FCX FUEL CELL VEHICLE AT HONDA

This paper describes the development of Hondas fuel cell vehicles, which were the first to receive approval for sale in the U.S. in 2002. The fuel cells that Honda uses are polymer electrolyte fuel cells. Fuel cell vehicles in general can receive their hydrogen from tanks stored onboard or by means of a reformer, which converts a liquid fuel, but the latter suffers from lack of efficiency in reducing carbon emissions. Honda has thus focused on purely hydrogen vehicles. Describes the research path, the various configurations of the fuel cell power plant, the main specifications and outer design and the powertrain system. Future challenges include startups a below freezing temperatures, improvements in driving range and systems for hydrogen storage and significant reductions on the systems size and weight and infrastructure for fueling.