By: Ted Biederman

Brian Williams is the deputy mayor for transportation and the environment for the City of Los Angeles. A former city prosecutor, Williams now takes that kind of tenacity in trying to help the city develop and execute plans that will provide the constituency with better and alternative means of transportation through what is some of the worst traffic congestion anywhere in this country.
Williams has also married his case of transportation with his, what seems, earnest concern for the environment. In this area he has piloted an experimental program for the city in cooperation with Honda and its first commercial application of the FCX hydrogen fuel car.

The city of Los Angeles and Honda are cooperating on a lease of five FCX vehicles at a rate of only $500 per month per vehicle. This is without doubt the bargain of the century since each of the FCX vehicles probably costs a cool $1,000.000. The token $2,500 per month in lease fees probably covers the cost of moving and refilling the mobile refueling station that has been developed for the program.

Williams is a regular driver of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, commuting from his Pasadena home to downtown. It’s fascinating contrast, that possibly one of the world’s most technically advance vehicles finds itself on what is believed to be the oldest freeway in the nation’s highway system.

The vehicles are also used by a number of city officials in the course of daily business. Williams’ experience with FCX he notes has been flawless and transparent. He jumps into the car, waits for the “okay to drive” message on the instrument panel and off he goes and from there on it’s just a normal drive.

Williams’ experience very much mirrors our experience behind the wheel of the FCX. It rides, runs and feels like a Honda, which is good. And aside from the fact that it is probably the most expensive vehicle we’ve ever driven we feel quite comfortable and at ease driving the FCX.

If you didn’t know what you were driving you wouldn’t notice any appreciable performance difference between the FCX and a Civic. The car is responsive and able to zip through Los Angeles traffic without any difficulty. There’s plenty of room for four and a trunk that could accommodate a thorough trip to the grocery store. It has a range of up to 170 miles making it fairly viable in real world driving allowing for the fact that you can’t wander far from your refueling source. Without infrastructure this is still a noble experiment.

The science behind the development is for another story, but the two-year agreement between Los Angeles and Honda for the FCX vehicles will prove to be a living laboratory beyond the current certification by the California Air Resources Board and the Environmental Protection Agency of the federal government as Zero Emission Vehicles.