Similar to battery-electric vehicles 20 years in the past, hydrogen gasoline cell vehicles endure from the outdated rooster and the egg drawback. No one desires to purchase a gasoline cell car till the supporting infrastructure is in place, but it surely’s robust to spend money on infrastructure when no person owns a gasoline cell car.
Honda says it’s taking part in the lengthy recreation with a lofty aim in thoughts. The corporate says it’s going to promote solely zero-emission automobiles by 2040 with a fleet of battery electrical and gasoline cell automobiles. Honda intends to take that plan one step additional by being a net-zero carbon emissions firm, throughout all of its merchandise and amenities, by 2050.
To get there, Honda is investing in each the rooster and the egg.
The egg is the brand new 2025 Honda CR-V e:FCEV — a hydrogen gasoline cell car I spent the day driving and that may quickly be accessible for lease in California. As wild because it sounds to launch a hydrogen gasoline cell car in a rustic with little to no infrastructure, Honda has hedged its wager with this explicit egg.
The rooster is Honda’s technique in direction of hydrogen.
Honda sees 4 methods to use the second-generation hydrogen gasoline cell: in shopper and business gasoline cell automobiles, in stationary energy stations and in building equipment. The latter two demand energy for lengthy durations, in idea rising the demand for hydrogen and thus encouraging higher infrastructure.
“We are doing this to advance the hydrogen economy, because somebody has to,” Jay Joseph, VP Sustainability and Enterprise Improvement at Honda stated referring to the corporate’s broad plan.
The 2025 Honda CR-V e:FCEV is one slice of that hydrogen pie. The corporate can also be testing different purposes of the gasoline. It makes use of a 576 kW hydrogen-powered generator as a backup to the grid- and solar-powered knowledge middle at Honda headquarters in Torrance, California. Honda can also be readying a Class 8 gasoline cell semi-truck as a proof-of-concept right here in the US.
A Honda CR-V with a twist
Picture Credit: Honda
Honda shouldn’t be new to the hydrogen gasoline cell recreation. The corporate first introduced a gasoline cell automotive into the world in 2003 with the fleet-only FCX. A number of years later, we acquired the FCX Readability and at last in 2016 the Clarity Fuel Cell was launched.
Right here we’re some eight years later and Honda is placing a hydrogen gasoline cell into its widespread CR-V crossover, however with a little bit of a twist.
The e:FCEV can run simply on hydrogen, but it surely additionally has a 17.7 kWh battery good for 29 miles of all-electric vary. Yep, this CR-V is a plug-in hybrid that replaces the interior combustion engine with a hydrogen gasoline cell.
I imply, look– Honda isn’t silly. It is aware of that hydrogen provides are, let’s say, risky. California’s largest public provider of hydrogen, True Zero, not too long ago hiked its prices by 20%. Shell simply shut down its hydrogen stations and of the 50 or so stations remaining, many are stricken by unexpected outages or a complete lack of gasoline.
Including that plug as a backup not solely mitigates a number of the stress over fueling, but it surely’s additionally extra environment friendly for the type of driving carried out by many gasoline cell homeowners. Honda discovered that Readability Gas Cell homeowners normally drove very quick distances, 5 or 10 miles at a time and a hydrogen gasoline cell isn’t essentially the most environment friendly on fast journeys. Utilizing electrons from a small battery is sensible.
Behind the wheel
The 2025 Honda CR-V e:FCEV is provided with an electrical motor that produces 174 horsepower and 229 pound-feet of torque, numbers which can be a bit lower than the usual hybrid mannequin. You may drive the automotive on EV-only or as a hybrid, letting the hydrogen kick in when extra torque is requested for. Drivers also can save the juice within the battery to make use of later or cost the battery on the go.
On a fast drive at Honda HQ I spent my time in hybrid, or Auto, mode and it drove, nicely, simply advantageous.
This can be a hydrogen gasoline cell car, but it surely drove like every other EV. There are modes for Econ, Regular, Snow and Sport. I instantly switched it to that final one however didn’t really feel any noticeable distinction in steering or throttle response. Nonetheless, Sport mode carried over my most well-liked regen braking settings. In Regular, the brakes defaulted to the friction brakes at each decelerate, which was annoying. I would like my free electrons, dammit!
When every little thing is charged up and the hydrogen tank is full, the CR-V has a variety of 270 miles. Honda says the small battery will be charged in underneath two hours on a Degree 2 charger, however it’s going to take about 10 hours on a normal family outlet. And sure, you possibly can take energy out of your automotive if mandatory, so when there’s an influence outage you’ll nonetheless run small house home equipment or cost your Honda Moto Compacto electric scooter.
The excellent news right here is that Honda has stated it’s going to subsidize hydrogen for CR-V e:FCEV. Whereas the corporate has but to enter specifics, it did give Readability Gas Cell homeowners $15,000 or 36 months value of free gasoline. I wouldn’t count on this to hold over to the hydrogen-powered crossover.
Gas cells: A love story
The CR-V’s carbon fiber hydrogen tank can maintain a complete of 4.3 kilograms of the gasoline. These hydrogen atoms actually wish to hang around with incoming oxygen atoms. Like, they love one another with a ardour solely seen on the duvet of bawdy romance novels. After they get collectively, it’s scorching, child, scorching. So scorching that electrons are emitted. They arrive off and say, “Hey, let’s keep this party going!”
They go to the Electrical Motor disco and dance round, making the motor spin, which propels the entrance wheels of the CR-V and will get you to work or the shop or wherever you’re going.
In different phrases, a gasoline cell produces power by a chemical response and that power is used to energy an electrical motor.
2025 Honda CRV e:FCEV inside and outside
The Honda CR-V e:FCEV is on the left, whereas the usual Honda CR-V hybrid is on the fitting. Picture credit: Emme Corridor
The e:FCEV appears to be like so much like the usual CR-V, however these with sharp eyes will discover just a few key variations. The hydrogen automotive has distinctive entrance and rear fascias, larger entrance overhangs and a wider grille opening.
I dig the clear taillight lenses within the e:FCEV in addition to the gloss-black 18-inch wheels. That gloss-black is echoed within the aspect mirrors as nicely.
Inside there’s a push-button gear selector, despite the fact that the one gears to pick out are Drive and Reverse. Supplies are all eco-friendly, with fake leather-based seats and steering wheel. The gasoline cell CR-V has a ten.2-inch digital gauge cluster with all of the power-delivery info your nerdy mind may probably need.
Whereas general passenger quantity stays the identical, cargo house is negatively impacted by the hydrogen tank. Honda has made the world behind the rear seats a bit extra usable with a two-tiered design with a movable panel. The engineer I talked to stated it permits him to hold an additional massive Costco pizza when it’s affixed within the topmost place, which frankly is without doubt one of the greatest design inspirations I’ve ever heard. It additionally acts as a canopy to maintain dearer objects out of sight of thieving eyes.
Picture Credit: Honda
The e:FCEV comes as a Touring trim, minus the sunroof. You may count on energy and heated entrance seats and a heated steering wheel, in addition to wi-fi charging, USB-A and -C ports and a bumping 12-speaker Bose audio system. The Honda Sensing suite of driver’s aids is normal right here as is a 9-inch touchscreen with wi-fi Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. You’ll additionally get two colour choices: white or grey.
At present, people solely have solely the Toyota Mirai to cross store and there’s so much to love in regards to the little hydrogen gasoline cell runabout. First off, it’s a sedan and can enchantment to those that need one thing a bit smaller. Additional, it has round 400 miles of vary. Techies in a Mirai who run the Los Angeles-San Francisco route can do it in a single tank of hydrogen. Those that strive it in a CR-V must depend upon the only hydrogen station on the journey, plunked down amidst farmland and subsequent to an airstrip. Hey, at the least you possibly can fill the tank in underneath 5 minutes.
The vary is perhaps sufficient to entice early adopters to the Toyota aspect– you possibly can even buy a Mirai outright if that’s your jam– however the added bonus of getting a battery backup on the CR-V ought to enchantment to those that need just a bit little bit of vary assurance.
The 2025 Honda CR-V e:FCEV shall be accessible to lease in California this summer season and single drivers will get that coveted carpool lane sticker. The corporate solely expects to lease 300 or so of those hydrogen-powered automobiles, however once more it’s taking part in the lengthy recreation, playing that hydrogen will assist it acquire its zero-emission objectives over the subsequent 25 years or so.
