Honda's FC Sport fuel-cell hybrid debuts in a puff of conceptual smoke

If the Tesla Roadster has proven anything other than the disruptive effects of a hyper-inflated ego, it's that well designed eco-vehicles will sell... at any price. Yet the general design theme amongst hybrid builders appears to be your grandfather's loafer. Honda too, just look at the FCX Clarity. So we're pretty stoked to see Honda roll out its FC Sport concept three-seater (driver front-and-center) at the LA Auto Show using the same V-Flow fuel cell stack and electric drivetrain found in the FCX Clarity. Only thing is, it's a non-functional concept with little hope of hitting the market anytime soon if history serves. Good news for GM but bad news for consumers. As a wise man of consumer electronics once said:

"You know how you see a show car, and it's really cool, and then four years later you see the production car, and it sucks? And you go, What happened? They had it! They had it in the palm of their hands! They grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory! What happened was, the designers came up with this really great idea. Then they take it to the engineers, and the engineers go, 'Nah, we can't do that. That's impossible.' And so it gets a lot worse. Then they take it to the manufacturing people, and they go, 'We can't build that!' And it gets a lot worse."

Or to paraphrase: It's like asking for a Big Mac and getting a fish sandwich.

Read -- Parable of the Concept Car
Read -- FC Sport

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 20th 2008 9:47AM]

looks like star wars' clone/star trooper mobile.. looks good though.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 20th 2008 9:53AM]

Looks like a real sports car that got punched in the nose.
Uuugggly.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 20th 2008 10:21AM]

Door handles?

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 20th 2008 11:35AM]

Where we're going we don't need door handles.

[diamondsw Posted Nov 20th 2008 11:15AM]

"As a wise man of consumer electronics once said"

You mean Steve Jobs, referring to why other companies rarely produce things that are truly innovative?

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 20th 2008 11:18AM]

I like fish sandwiches =(

[boe Posted Nov 20th 2008 11:35AM]

I'm not as concerned about the design/shape as the idea of having better fuel sipping vehicles or alternative fuel vehicles. I have an 8 year old acura - still runs well, has great acceleration but has a few dings and the GPS unit is aged and the radio sucks. The thing that bugs me about my car is the absurdly bad gas mileage it gets though. I would have definitely considered another acura but I was stunned to find out the brand new version - 2 generations newer and it gets the same crappy mpg! It has more horse power which will come in handy if I'm racing it in a country with no speed limits but as it is I'm always the fastest vehicle on the highway, not sure where these people who needed more HP for the TL live.

I think Honda is really taking too long to go where Toyota is going which is a shame as I loved my Honda Civic I bought 18 years ago and I really liked my TL but I'll probably end up with a Toyota product next.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 20th 2008 1:24PM]

Oh no! The Cylons have infiltrated Honda.

[tsurugi Posted Nov 20th 2008 7:41PM]

Damn, you beat me to it. Cylon autobots, assemble!

[hikanae Posted Nov 20th 2008 9:21PM]

Its the PANTY MOBILE!

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 21st 2008 4:21AM]

I love the look of this concept. This is how I'd like my next Honda (or whatever brand of car) to look.

I wish car manufacturers would quit teasing us with concepts that we really like, only to (without fail) set aside what we really want and put out some stupid, boring, run-of-the-mill version that looks like every other lame, uninspiring car on the road.

So when will these idiots get their heads out of their butts and offer us what we want?!?

Crikey, if they sold that car above, they wouldn't be able to keep them on the showroom floor.

----------

Dear Honda,

Here's a "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" suggestion for you (and any other auto manufacturer that can get a clue): See that photo of the Honda body above? BUILD THAT. DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING. JUST BUILD WHAT YOU HAVE THERE IN THE PHOTO, AND SELL IT. Thanks.

Oh yeah, and one other thing: NO front and center seating. That's stupid. Put two seats in the front like every other normal car in the universe. Thanks again.

And for the engineers that whine, "We can't do that!" Here's what you tell them: "We've sent robots to Mars, so what's your excuse? Make it happen or find another job." After all, they ARE engineers. Their job is to find a way and make it work. That's what engineers are PAID to DO.

Sincerely,

Everyone who wants the car shown above and are tired of being teased by concepts only to receive uninspired designs

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 21st 2008 4:30AM]

I love the angle on the car in the photo above - and it's deceiving, because after looking at the other site, the butt of the car needs to change. From a pure side view, the tail end needs to be shortened... a lot - it looks totally stupid as is. But everything else looks great.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 21st 2008 4:34AM]

But if water vapor is I believe something on the order of 2,000 times more effective at trapping atmospheric heat than CO2, won't changing over all cars to fuel cells (that emit water vapor) dramatically affect global warming?

[Macbeth Posted Nov 21st 2008 4:11PM]

have you guy's seen this thing from the backside, it needs to die. It's like walking up behind a woman and saying "Hey sweEEEET, HOLY MOTHER OF..." but in reverse.

[Macbeth Posted Nov 21st 2008 4:12PM]

no edit button

http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2008/11/post-1.html