Introduction

I love coffee. But, when the water for your coffee comes from the car you just drove as its only emission byproduct, you have to smile in admiration.

Welcome to the world of hydrogen powered cars. It's still a pretty small world of course given the hydrogen related infrastructure is still in its infancy across the global. And, it’s still an expensive fuel both to bottle up and to produce cars that run on it. Now, we did drive one such car last year called the Toyota Mirai (you can read more about it HEREor by locating the story in the Special Report section of our mobile app) and then too, I drank a glass full of its emissions.

Going mainstream

This, the new Honda Clarity, though is a bit more mainstream. It doesn’t look quirky, it can seat five, it has decent stowage, and its interiors are more luxurious than sci-fi. And, one of the test demonstrators on our drive came hooked up with a coffee machine. Japan, I must say, does have some great coffee. Ideally, take it black.

Getting back to the source of water meanwhile, this is the second generation of the Clarity. So apart from more palatable styling, it also gets a new platform, a revised drivetrain, and it is finally on sale, though only in Japan and the US.

As for India, it’s a distant dream. But with increasing number of countries passing dictate against fossil fuelled cars, India included, hydrogen may well be the fuel of the future. Now, electrification is a given, no doubt. But, whether the driving juice will come from your home plug point via lithium ion batteries or solid-state batteries, or hydrogen is anyone’s guess. And so Honda believes, developing and producing mass market H2 powered cars is a sensible, well-calculated risk.

The short drive

Back to the Clarity, and it drives similar to any well put together, well engineered, and well, any spacious electric car. I believe it would feel very similar to driving an electric powered Accord for instance. It's quiet, it has a relaxed but linear power delivery, and it is quite non-intrusive to drive. It’s like one those serious Japanese bus drivers who are extremely efficient and capable at what they do, but for some reason seem completely devoid of emotion.

On the move, especially at slow speeds, all one can hear inside the new Clarity is the air compressor working to feed denser air to the fuel stacks. And as speeds rise, that noise is drowned by the motor whine. Again, it’s not loud and it definitely doesn’t get in the way, but you know it’s there.

Now, we drove the car for all of two supervised laps never exceeding 60kmph; okay maybe sometimes. But the point is, it just wasn’t enough. So forgive me for not delving deeper into the whole driving experience. What I can tell you is that the Clarity is a heavy car – nearly two tonnes. And with 103kw (almost 140bhp), there isn't a lot of power either.

But, because it has an AC motor, the 300Nm of torque is available from the word go. So, when you initially stamp on the throttle, it feels eager, more so in the Sport mode. But, soon that grunt flattens out. Within city confines then, it should feel nice and peppy, but maybe not so much when you hit the open highways. But, like I said, given the lack of driving time, it’s just an educated guess.

The point of it all

So, if the Clarity isn’t coming to India and we didn’t get enough seat time to form an opinion, why did we drive it at all? Well, Honda is quite serious about electrification, just like most other carmakers would be today.

But, instead of putting all its eggs in just one EV basket, Honda wants to pursue hybrid and hydrogen power alongside. But it doesn’t want to build different platforms and models for each of these variations.

And that’s why the Clarity is such a big breakthrough for Honda. The Clarity is being sold not just as a fuel cell car but it also comes as a full EV and a hybrid. What’s more, not much changes between these versions and that makes this a cost-effective solution for what awaits post 2030.