Photos: Honda Delivers FCX Clarity to First Customer
By John O'Dell July 27, 2008
We promised a few more photos of Honda's first FCX Clarity
customer getting his car, and here they are.
Honda delivered the car to Hollywood producer Ron Yerxa and his wife, Annette Ballester, in a closed ceremony Friday, so we were unable to attend and shoot our own photos.
Ron Yerxa and Annette Ballester receive ceremonial key to Clarity from Honda of Santa Monica's sales manager, Dan Rowand.
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We apologize that the pictures, supplied by Honda Motor Co. seem a bit promotional, but we thought the event was worth presenting because it marked the first long-term retail delivery of a fuel-cell electric car.
General Motors Corp. supplies models of its fuel-cell electric Equinox to regular people in its Project Driveway, but only for about a month at a time.
In contrast, the car Yerxa and Ballester received is for a three-year-lease.
About 199 more 2009 Honda Claritys will follow, with some to be leased in Japan, but most slated for customers in four Southern California areas with access to publicly available hydrogen fuel pumps.
Friday's delivery ceremony occurred just shy of three years after Honda unveiled the initial concept model of the car at the 2005 Tokyo Auto Show, and about nine months (hmmmm) after the first production model was unveiled at the 2007 Los Angeles auto show last October.
Above left, Yerxa and Ballester receive refueling instructions at new hydrogen station in West Los Angeles from Honda fuel-cell vehicle program consultant Tim Cunningham. Above right, a happy Yerxa shows off his new car.
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