Honda Motor Co.’s hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity rolled off the line Monday and will be leased to high rollers in California. The Clarity — an update of Honda’s original FCX, a handful of which were leased in 2005 — runs on hydrogen and electricity, emits only water, and is twice as fuel-efficient as a gas-electric hybrid. Actresses Laura Harris and Jamie Lee Curtis, filmmaker Christopher Guest, and Little Miss Sunshine producer Ron Yerxa will be among those leasing the Clarity this year; Honda hopes to lease 200 of the cars within three years and, if all goes well, have them mass-produced within a decade. All going well will mean a significant uptick in hydrogen-fueling infrastructure: fill-up stations are currently few and far between (if existent at all) in most of the country.
