Honda's Dogged Hydrogen Push Yields A Remarkable New Clarity Fuel Cell Sedan

Honda's revamped Clarity fuel cell sedan is a technological marvel, but hydrogen fuel stations remain scarce. The dogged persistence Honda has shown in its decades-long quest to perfect hydrogen as a zero-emission replacement for gasoline can be seen as quixotic or futile. But the quirky company that makes motorcycles, lawnmowers, jets, humanoid robots, boat engines and a few million cars soldiers on, along with GM, Toyota and Hyundai, in the face of haphazard government support for hydrogen, minimal consumer awareness and withering critics like Elon Musk, a tireless advocate for Tesla's battery-powered cars. All the sweat equity Honda engineers have invested in its fuel cell program, year after year, has yielded a remarkable new version of the Clarity sedan, the most compelling argument yet of the potential of hydrogen cars still hold. Yet for all its technological sophistication, Clarity's fate remains to a skinny network of California hydrogen stations that's expanding slowly, with new headwinds from a Trump Administration that's shown no willingness to aid carbon-cutting technologies.