Living with the FCX

What it Looks Like

The Honda FCX looks a lot like most commuter cars on the road, just a little taller, and wearing ugly blue paint. It's about as long as a Civic, but with more vertical styling. This is an engineering project, remember, not a design exercise, so its traditional compact car body was tweaked and stretched in order to fit the elements inside. For example, extra vents in front help with cooling the powertrain, and the trunk is small, thanks to the capacitor. The exterior appearance is also at the mercy of safety regs that helped the FCX pass crash tests. In addition to protecting passengers, the FCX must protect the fuel cell and hydrogen tanks, and thus limiting the amount of body damage.