Up to the point where I took my foot off the brake pedal, everything I'd learned about the FCX Clarity told me that it was a well designed and desirable vehicle. But, to be completely honest, the exterior and interior could be largely duplicated on a gasoline or hybrid Honda car if the will was there. What I wanted to know was if the compromises so inherent in gasoline/electric hybrids that I'd driven (Prius I/II, Civic Hybrid I/II and Insight) had been reduced or eliminated with this new fuel cell technology.

Now, when we were first told of the test drive event, I had been led to believe that we'd get a couple hours of unsupervised driving. I was in fact wondering if I might be able to make it back to my shop for an illicit dyno test and still be able to make it back to test drive HQ with time and hydrogen to spare. In retrospect, given what we know about the true cost of this car, that was probably silly to even hope for unsupervised testing at this point. Not to mention that many of the Honda PR folks are still clamoring for seat time in this modern marvel. So, my 2.5+ hours in the FCX Clarity were spent with Sara Pines from Honda PR and Honda engineer Ryan Harty. Fortunately for us, Sara is a long time friend of TOV and Ryan had no qualms with me taking liberties with the Clarity's accelerator pedal and exploring its handling limits. Keep in mind though that between the 3 people and my camera gear/luggage, we were approaching 600 lbs of payload in the car, which had to have some effect on acceleration. I'd also brought along our Racelogic Vbox for some instrumented acceleration testing when the opportunity arose. The original plan outlined by Honda was to follow a predetermined route from Santa Monica out through Malibu (scorched as it was) and then back again. However, since I spent a number of years living in Malibu, I was given permission to go wherever I wanted provided I was able to get the car back in time and under its own power. Lucky me!

The first thing I noticed pulling away from the Fairmont Hotel was a number of distinct drivetrain noises. There was the occasional and irregular click or whir, but the soundscape was dominated by two primary elements. The first, a low whir/whine that varied directly with speed. This was, of course, the electric motor. And while it was far quieter than any gasoline engine has ever been, the low noise floor in the FCX Clarity allowed it to be heard up to about 50-60 mph where tire noise drowned it out. It wasn't objectionable, just different (get used to that phrase). The second noise was most prominent while accelerating. It was a high pitched, nearly fixed in frequency whine/whir which I was told resulted from the air pump to the fuel cell. As mentioned in the technical overview, the fuel cell combines air and hydrogen to create electricty and water. And a lot of air is needed to produce 100 kW of power. The engineers are still figuring out if they want to do a more involved resonator structure to reduce this noise (see the underhood pictures - that's the reason for the air filter and inlet tract on a non-combustion engined car), and I think they should. While the Jetson's air car sound is amusing and unique (yes, it reminds me of the Jetsons), the constant pitch while accelerating reminds a bit of a CVT, and the frequency isn't the most pleasing in the world. It is also relatively loud (largely drowning out the motor hum). However, it is unique and let's you know something different is going on.

The second thing I noticed was the brake regen system and its logic. Right after we pulled into traffic we headed down the California incline to reach Pacific Coast Highway. There was plenty of traffic, so I was on and off the brakes going down the hill (which is in the range of a 7-8% grade). My first brake application going down the slope was a bit sketchy, because it felt like the car did not slow down at all when I lifted. And in fact, it didn't. Honda has created a power and regen logic that will allow the FCX Clarity to maintain a constant speed going down a hill with a very low accelerator position. This was designed to help compensate for the average driver's familiarity with gasoline engines, automatic transmissions and engine braking. Once you lift completely off the gas and apply the brakes, regen and normal braking kick in. I mentioned this to Ryan Harty and he explained it to me and told me it only took about 5 minutes to acclimate to. He was, of course, correct, and I didn't notice it again on my drive, even on some very steep canyon roads in Malibu.

Once we got down on PCH, I was able to really give the Clarity the boot and see what it was capable of. Merging into traffic at about 30 mph, I found an opening, changed lanes and punched it. The induction pump opened up to full intensity, the battery delivered full supplemental power and away we went. A few seconds later, we were travelling 15-20 mph above the speed limit and I shut down - if I was going to get a ticket, I wanted it at the end of the test drive! Suffice it to say though that a one-speed electric motor driven car does not feel like your typical multispeed gasoline vehicle. While peak acceleration g's were definitely below that of your typical Accord 2.4 automatic, they were nearly constant up to 65-70 mph when aero drag began to rear its head. This often fooled me into thinking we were travelling slower than we really were. To put it another way, the FCX Clarity has plenty of acceleration for playing the commuting game in even the most hostile of environments - it is no sports car, but it'll exploit holes in traffic better than your typical sport ute, mommyvan or eco commuter car without much trouble.

From a standing stop, the Clarity actually felt a bit soft up to about 10 mph. To be fair, this may be due entirely to the extra weight I was carrying during my test drive, but the step off just didn't feel as crisp as I had expected. Perhaps there were some calibration changes that needed to be made to the accelerator pedal logic as well. In comparison, I drove the last generation FCX V4 after driving the Clarity. And while that car was heavier (by about the same weight as my extra passengers I think), it seemed to punch harder below 10 mph (but was noticeably slower above that). The FCX V4 was rated at about 5% more low end torque, but the difference seemed larger than that.

Above 10 mph though it felt like someone hit the nitrous. From 10-40 mph the Clarity was quite quick, feeling about on par with a manual transmission 4cyl Accord (0-60 in 8 seconds). In the few standing starts we attempted on back roads (none of them perfectly level), I tried to find a way to get enough wheelspin to get through the 0-10 mph range quickly enough to net a good run. Unfortunately, even with VSA turned off (yes, you can turn it completely off!), the best I could manage was a slight chirp from the tires. With 350+ lbs less weight in the car, this could be all it takes to get much better times. And what were those times? We recorded a best 0-60 run of 10.1 seconds, with the average more in the 10.3 range. 5-60 times were in the 9.6-9.7 range, which tells you how important that step off is. Given that we were carrying about 10% more weight than normal, you should expect those times to drop to at least 9.5 seconds under normal testing. If less weight allows a more aggressive launch, or a different calibration is used for the acceleration at step off, then sub-9 second times may be possible. This is about on par with Honda's estimate of low 9 second 0-60 times and it really makes sense. From 0-30 mph, the FCX is averaging about 100 hp of output. From 30-60 mph it is averaging 130 hp of output (if ratings are accurate). In comparison, a 5-spd manual Civic (which returns 0-60 times in the high 8's if you don't do a 5000 rpm clutch drop), produces about 85-90 hp average from 0-30 and 100-110 hp average from 30-60 mph. Said Civic also weighs about 20% less than the FCX Clarity and needs a time consuming shift from 1st to 2nd gear. The upshot of all this is that the FCX Clarity should perform on par with an automatic K24 Accord or a 5MT R18 Civic under most conditions. Considering that these are the first or second best selling cars in their classes, the acceleration performance of the Clarity can be considered solidly mainstream - you don't have to give up acceleration any more to be green. Furthermore, obtaining maximum acceleration from the Clarity requires little to no skill, so it may actually outperform those cars in many everyday driving situations. Also keep in mind that atmospheric conditions should have a near zero effect on the performance of the FCX Clarity. And at any altitude under 7k-8k feet, there will be no performance loss either.