In the field of fuel cells, Japanese automakers, including Honda, have never given up.
Honda unveiled the CR-V e:FCEV fuel powered vehicle, which is expected to be launched in North America and Japan. Among them, the CR-V e:FCEV will be available for lease in California by the end of this year, while sales in the Japanese market are expected to start in the summer. This model will be the most expensive model under the Honda brand, and it also represents Honda's latest achievement in zero carbon emissions.
Hydrogen-electric hybrids take into account external plug-ins
The CR-V e:FCEV is equipped with a second-generation fuel cell system jointly developed by Honda and General Motors of the U.S. In terms of cost, system efficiency and durability, it is a significant improvement over Honda's previous fuel cell system installed in the Clarity Fuel Cell.
In particular, in terms of cost, the fuel cell system of the CR-V e:FCEV has been reduced by two-thirds.
In terms of product capabilities, the biggest highlight of the CR-V e:FCEV is the powertrain, which has two powertrains: hydrogen and pure electric. Overall, the CR-V e:FCEV has a maximum power of 129 kW and a maximum torque of 310 Nm, which is basically the same as the power of the 1.5-liter engine.
In the field of pure electric systems, the CR-V e:FCEV is equipped with a 17.7 kWh lithium battery, which can provide the vehicle with an all-electric range of 29 miles (47 km).
In addition, the CR-V e:FCEV is also equipped with plug-in charging. This allows consumers to charge their vehicles through regular home charging stations, so that those short daily city commutes can be completed by pure electric mileage.
It is worth mentioning that this battery also gives the vehicle the ability to support external discharge with a maximum power of 1.5kW, which can further expand the scope of use of the vehicle.
In addition, the CR-V e:FCEV also has a 4.3 kg hydrogen tank with a storage capacity, and the EPA combined range can reach 270 miles (435 km) on a full tank.
In order to provide the CR-V e:FCEV with a similar driving experience as the CR-V, Honda engineers optimized the steering and suspension systems of the CR-V e:FCEV, and equipped the vehicle with Normal, EV, Snow, and Sport driving modes to match the more fuel-efficient or sportier handling experience.
CR-V e:FCEV最大的目的在于积累经验
As mentioned above, the CR-V e:FCEV is more of an experimental model. For this reason, the CR-V components have been used as much as possible. The advantage of this is that on the one hand, it can avoid the cost of re-opening most of the parts, and reduce the verification cycle on the premise of improving reliability.
On the other hand, it can also inherit many connected and comfortable features, including a 9-inch center screen, Bose audio system, Honda Link, wireless charging, inductive power tailgate, Honda Sensing, etc. After all, as Honda's most expensive model in Japan, various intelligent connectivity and comfort features are essential.
In terms of cruising range, compared with the pure electric vehicles in China that have exceeded 1,000 kilometers of range, the range of the CR-V e:FCEV is not very impressive. The main reason for this is that Honda has modified the CR-V.
For Honda, due to the high cost of fuel cell vehicles and the constraints of infrastructure such as hydrogen refueling stations, future sales are not necessarily very large. And if you want to maximize the sales of this model, it is possible to create a dedicated chassis to store more hydrogen cylinders to get a longer range.
In terms of manufacturing plants, Honda chose to produce at the Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) in Ohio, USA, which was previously manufactured for the Acura NSX. The plant was conceived as a production base focused on low-volume vehicle production, so the requirements for production capacity and emissions reductions were modest.
The main change is the introduction of a new welding system to complete the dispensing of hydrogen tanks and the assembly of fuel cells. In terms of painting, the CR-V e:FCEV is Honda's first time in North America to apply zirconium to a mixed-metal and one-piece body, so it also needs a performance manufacturing center such as PMC to explore forward-looking and prepare for the introduction of other factories in the future.
How China should look at fuel cells
In the domestic automobile market, the degree of attention to fuel cells will appear periodically, and any technological breakthrough or industrial policy adjustment will cause the industry to pay great attention to fuel cells.
However, from the perspective of the entire industrial policy orientation, fuel cells do not have the ability to be commercialized in the domestic passenger car market, and in addition to demonstration operations, fuel cells will only be used in the market segment of heavy-duty truck models that undertake trunk logistics.
Compared with pure electric technology, the advantages of fuel cells are self-evident, especially in the energy replenishment time, heavy-load scenarios and low temperature environments in winter, the advantages of fuel cells cannot be replaced by pure electric vehicles.
These advantages are very critical for heavy-duty truck models. The biggest constraint faced by fuel cell technology, the network layout of infrastructure such as hydrogen refueling stations, is also easy to solve due to the relatively fixed trajectory of trunk logistics.
In the field of passenger cars, compared with charging piles, tens of millions of hydrogen refueling stations are far superior to charging stations/charging piles in terms of site selection and input costs. Therefore, in the short term, Honda will most likely not introduce the CR-V e:FCEV into the domestic market for sale or lease similar to the U.S. market.
However, this does not mean that Honda will not have any opportunities in the domestic fuel cell market in the future. Previously, Toyota changed its technical conservatism in the field of hybrid and began to cooperate with domestic mainstream car companies to gradually introduce fuel cell technology to China.
In addition to Toyota, Honda and Hyundai, which have also made achievements in the field of fuel cells, are likely to follow in Toyota's footsteps and seek cooperation with local car companies, after all, the latter is more likely to receive funding and support from government projects.
For fuel cell related fields, China still needs to ensure a certain amount of investment in the short term for forward-looking exploration. It is difficult to achieve a technology such as fuel cells overnight, and it is necessary to continue to explore in related fields and build a complete set of core technologies through the development and update of generations of models.