The Honda FCX Clarity has sold 46 units in three years

The first commercial hydrogen-powered vehicle, the Honda FCX Clarity, is turning out to be a total failure, according to a revealing fact: only 46 units have been sold of a vehicle that was completely revolutionary when it was launched in 2008.

The Clarity remained as the car that Honda has had in its range since then, but with a certain experimental and exotic air, waiting to see the reaction of the market and the public towards hydrogen cars. Obviously the conclusion is being negative for two reasons: the monopolisation that the electric car has made of the media and governments, in addition to the few Clarity units that Honda has managed to sell.

Breaking down the few Clarity units on the road is not a difficult task at all. Most of them have been sold in the USA: 30 units; the rest are distributed between Japan, with 14 units, and Europe with only 2 units.

Where are the 80,000 expressions of interest in the Clarity in 2007? Where are the 200 Clarity units that Honda said it was going to sell? Obviously everything vanished amid the lack of interest (and the negligible progress of hydrogen as a fuel, it must be said) in hydrogen technology and the lack of charging points.

The Honda FCX Clarity has been a victim and is the first martyr of another technology that promises a lot and delivers little: that of electric cars. I believe the moment when the Clarity becomes history is not far off.