Honda to launch CR-V powered by hydrogen gasoline cell

Honda will launch a model of its fashionable CR-V compact crossover powered by a hydrogen gasoline cell, the automaker introduced on Wednesday.

The hydrogen-sipping CR-V will arrive in 2024 and be constructed on the former plant of the Acura NSX supercar, positioned in Marysville, Ohio. NSX manufacturing got here to an finish on the specialist plant earlier in November.

In fuel-cell autos, hydrogen is mixed with oxygen inside a fuel-cell stack in a course of often known as electrolysis. The one byproducts are electrical energy, which is used to energy an electrical drive system, and water, which is launched to the environment.

Within the fuel-cell CR-V, Honda may even set up a battery that the gasoline cell can high up. There may even be a plug so house owners can cost the battery at house, which is able to assist alleviate the difficulty of the dearth of hydrogen filling stations.

On this sense, the car is sort of a typical plug-in hybrid, however with a gasoline cell as a substitute of a fuel engine. Mercedes-Benz had an analogous design for its fuel-cell GLC-Class inbuilt restricted numbers a number of years in the past.

Honda has had a handful of fuel-cell autos on sale prior to now, the latest being the Readability Gasoline Cell that arrived for 2017 and bowed out final 12 months. Honda can be a member of the Hydrogen Council, an initiative representing automakers and vitality firms, and which goals to advertise hydrogen. It is all a part of Honda’s plan to solely promote zero-emission autos by 2040.