2016 Honda FCV Clarity first drive

This is the new Honda FCV Clarity, the latest attempt by the Japanese manufacturer to gain the high ground on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles - and one that’s under more pressure than ever before, thanks to the recent arrival of the Toyota Mirai.

Indeed, whereas Honda’s previous fuel cell vehicles have been praised for their technical innovation, they’ve also been available to only a select few. The firm made just 72 examples of the last effort, the FCX Clarity - but it has much higher hopes for the FCV Clarity, which will be made in “much greater numbers” and is seen as a stepping stone to Honda’s first mass-produced fuel cell vehicle, currently in development (some of it shared with General Motors) and due in 2020.

As with the Clarity, the FCV Clarity sits on a bespoke platform, but it gets two hydrogen tanks instead of one, with both storing the fuel at a higher pressure (700bar instead of 350). This is designed, Honda engineers say, to answer the single biggest concern that’s come across in feedback from Clarity owners: range. That car managed 240 miles in the US test cycle; Honda says the FCV Clarity can crack 300 on the same standard, and it should be north of 400 in many real-world situations.

At the heart of it all is a new fuel cell stack, a third smaller than before and, astonishingly, 90% cheaper to produce. The more compact package has allowed Honda to move it away from the transmission tunnel area, to under the bonnet. That frees up cabin space, allowing the FCV Clarity to be a five-seater.

Honda hasn't announced a European on-sale date, let alone a price - but around 200 examples will be leased in Japan next year. The nominal figure for the car is 7.66 million Yen, or around £42,000, but that will simply be divided by the length of the lease. A 48-month deal, as was common with the few FCX Clarity cars that were leased, should cost around £875 per month in Japan.

As with most fuel cell vehicles, the FCV Clarity is remarkably straightforward to use. You select Drive, then ease away in near-silence. The only noise you’re likely to hear - should you not be doing a sufficient rate of knots to create tyre roar - is what sounds like a faint gurgling from under the bonnet.

But in the most part, there’s no real mechanical noise to speak of; think of it as an EV that doesn’t need plugging in, or a Toyota Prius-like hybrid where the combustion engine simply never fires up.

Our test route was a short loop at Honda’s Tochigi R&D centre, and Honda has yet to issue any official performance figures anyway, but it’s already clear that the FCV is set up for cruising comfort instead of out-and-out performance or agility.

The cell has a nominal output of 134bhp, which is enough for brisk acceleration, even up to a motorway cruising speed. Once you’re there, you’ll just hear some wind noise from around the door mirrors, and the aforementioned rumble from the road below. It’s just like a reasonably refined executive saloon, basically - although again, we had no opportunity to throw it at anything approaching a sharp corner.

Honda is planning a series of accessories for the car, including a small hydrogen production station designed for use by a few vehicles and a neat inverter that can take electricity produced by the fuel cell and power a range of domestic devices. Honda suggests it could have uses in emergency medical situations, for example.