http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/handed-the-keys-to-an-alernative-future/?hp

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/01/21/automobiles/480-nytwheelsthorp.jpg

Well, Clarity gets a real-world range of 200 miles per charge.

$649 / month isn't HORRIBLE. Its about what I guestimate for a Volt lease (assuming 5 year lease which is pretty optimistic).

Of course, we all know Honda is taking a bath at that price. Also, she claims a kg of hydrogen is about the same as a gallon of gas. I don't know how much it is subsidized but what I've seen browsing around the net is about $8 / kg actual cost so its about 4+ times the cost of gasoline.

So to sum up, the car gets about 200 miles on a tank. The unsubsidized price of fuel is about 4 times that of gas (not taking into account the artificially high price of gas due to taxes) and the car probably costs close to $60k to manufacture.

Where do I sign up? Oh that's right, I can't. Only a select few get to drive one and only a tiny number of hydrogen pumping stations exist.

As you say, the price is subsidized, so who knows what the real price is, but this Honda Clarity site says the Clarity gets about 68 miles per kilogram. So if you could find hydrogren for $8/kg, it costs roughly 11-12 cents per mile drive cost. Which is probably equivalent to $3.50/gallon gas in a car this size that I would guess could get 30 miles per gallon running gas.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=123662

They still like to dumb down the terms they use as "gallons" instead of kilograms which is very confusing for people who know the difference between a kg of hydrogen and a gallon. But I think this is what they meant.

“Of course, we all know Honda is taking a bath at that price… “ – LampCord

While Honda is gaining PR mileage and field experience out of the Clarity, I suspect Honda’s real intention is to drop in a Li-ion battery pack in place of the FC eventually to turn it into a plug-in EV.