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Honda FCX Clarity Wins 2009 World Green Car Award

 
2 3,398 views Apr 9, 2009

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Honda’s FCX Clarity is one of the few hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles built and sold to the public by a major carmaker

Honda’s FCX Clarity is one of the few hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles built and sold to the public by a major carmaker

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The World Green Car is a sub-award of the annual World Car of the Year (WCOTY) handed out by a dedicated organization and chosen by a selection of journalist jurors from around the world. Inaugurated with an award to the Honda Civic Hybrid in 2006, today at the New York Auto Show another Honda was given the award. Taking out top honors for the 2009 World Green Car award was the Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle.

This year a wide array of production and experimental vehicles were selected, including everything from 'TetraFuel' cars to pure electrics. Because the rules state that production cars must be all-new and available for purchase in at least one major market between January 1 and December 31, 2008, in order to be eligible, there were some odd omissions (the Toyota Prius and Volkswagen Jetta TDI, for example) while some other oddballs - like the Chevrolet Tahoe/GMC Yukon Hybrid and Mitsubishi i-MiEV - made the list.

While you may argue that cars like the i-MiEV and FCX Clarity are not readily available, the rules stipulate that a vehicle can be an experimental prototype with potential near-future application, provided that it was released for individual or press fleet evaluations in quantities of just 10 or more during 2008.

The FCX Clarity was eventually chosen from an initial entry list of 22 contenders nominated by 59 World Car jurors from 25 countries throughout the world. The jurors felt that “The FCX clarity is an utterly real, hydrogen-fueled luxury sedan that provides the amenities people expect in a premium car with 430km range, fuel consumption of about 3.3 L/100km (72 mpg US) equivalent and zero tailpipe emissions.

Vehicles originally eligible for the 2009 World Green Car award:
Audi Q7 3.0 TDI
BMW 335d BluePerformance
Chevrolet Tahoe / GMC Yukon Hybrid
Citroën C1
Fiat Palio Weekend Electric
Fiat Siena Tetrafuel model
Honda FCX Clarity
Mazda Hydrogen Rotary RX8
Mercedes-Benz ML/R/GL 320 BlueTEC
MINI Cooper D
MINI E
Mitsubishi i-MiEV
Nissan X-Trail 20 GT
smart ed
Subaru Legacy/Outback PZEV
Tesla Electric Roadster
Toyota iQ
Volvo C30 1.6D DRIVe
Volvo S40 1.6D DRIVe
Volvo S80 2.5 FT (Flexifuel)
Volvo V50 1.6D DRIVe
Volvo V70 2.5 FT (Flexifuel)

Honda FCX Clarity


HI-RES GALLERY: fcx clarity fuelcell motorauthority 001




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Comments (2)

  1. ma_Roy avatar Roy Posted: 12/10/2008 10:29am PST

    Hmmm, a whole bunch of typical cars and the first production fuel cell vehicle (FCX Clarity). I wonder if the voting is going to take long?
     
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  2. ma_J-Kwon avatar J-Kwon Posted: 12/10/2008 12:27pm PST

    had no idea Volvo had many green cars.
     
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