Honda's solution.
The Honda Clarity is already on the road in California as well as seeing daily use by the Japanese Government.This latest Clarity is so far ahead of the previous car made in 2007, I feel for anyone stuck with the earlier model as good as it was.
Honda continues to produce 200 of these cars at a time, rumoured to be costing $2.5 million dollars a piece including R&D. All the development costs will have to be paid for before mass production prices can drop to reflect the real production cost after R&D. but it is guaranteed it will be much cheaper in time, as it has many fewer moving parts than a conventional car.
The Clarity will eventually be very economical to manufacture, maintain and own, as the cost comes down when Honda is able to spread the cost across mass markets.
Drive systems as simple as this may be expensive to design, but certainly not to make. Like computers, cars will get cheaper by using simple direct drive systems such as the Clarity employs, as well as their innovative use of common organic materials to replace plastics.
The new car can barely be compared with the last model.
Improvements in the vehicle have enabled a huge power/weight ratio improvement, shedding hundreds of lbs as components have been re-designed to be more efficient and lightweight.
The results are startling! It can now travel 30% further than the previous model!
The Clarity is well stocked with safety devices. Multiple airbags with 2 deployment modes, lots of passive and active safety systems are employed to assist with steering and braking. All the usual Honda safety features and luxuries you would expect and then some.
