Hydrogen car makes a pitstop at Swindon's Honda factory (From Swindon Advertiser)

Hydrogen car makes a pitstop at Swindon's Honda factory

8:00pm Friday 5th November 2010 in News By Leigh Robinson

Honda worker Steve McRea with the FCX Clarity

THE world’s first production hydrogen fuel cell car made a pitstop at the Honda factory in Swindon yesterday.

The Honda FCX Clarity pulled up to the factory en route to Brighton for the start of this weekend’s 2010 RAC Future Car Challenge.

The Clarity, regarded as the car of the future, went on display for the day at the manufacturing site where the Honda Jazz, Civic and CR-V models are built and the visit gave the 3,000 Honda workers the opportunity to see the car and experience first hand Honda’s next generation technology.

Sam Tipper of Honda UK’s corporate communications said: “This was a fantastic opportunity to show our Associates Honda’s most exciting and latest technology.”

The FCX Clarity represents the pinnacle of Honda’s research into clean alternative energy vehicles.

It emits only water vapour and showcases more than 20 years of ground-breaking research and innovation that will revolutionise car technology and design. As well as emitting no harmful exhaust gases, the FCX Clarity offers the best clean equivalent of what most of us drive today, including a good driving range of 270 miles, refuelling time of around five minutes and a flexible layout and design.

The FCX Clarity is already being leased in America and Japan where there is an emerging infrastructure to support hydrogen-powered cars.

One famous face who owns a Clarity is the actress Jamie Lee Curtis and she has been driving it for more than a year.

The UK requires the development of similar refuelling stations before the FCX Clarity can be brought commercially to the UK and it will be at least 10 years before the vehicle could be mass produced.

Honda is at the forefront of science and technology and Asimo, the world’s most advanced humanoid robot, celebrated its 10th anniversary last week. To mark this special occasion, Honda has launched a dedicated website at http://world.honda.com/ASIMO hosting films and photographs detailing Asimo’s evolution over the past 10 years.

A ‘Run with Asimo’ smartphone and iphone app has also been produced to allow users to interact with a virtual version of the robot on their phone.

Asimo was created 10 years ago as part of Honda’s programme of research and development into robotics and human mobility.

Asimo has lead to breakthroughs in mobility technology, but Honda’s ultimate goal is to develop Asimo into a robot to help people, both by carrying out day to day tasks and by performing work too dangerous for a human, such as firefighting and cleaning up toxic spills.

Honda is now focusing its research on the development of Asimo’s intelligence, as well as exploring the scope for interaction between humans and humanoid robots.