Honda Clarity Fuel Cell sedan gets EPA-rated 366-mile range

The Honda Clarity Fuel Cell sedan received a U.S.-best EPA-rated driving range of 366 miles, the automaker said today.

The Clarity Fuel Cell, set for a limited U.S. release this year, also received an EPA-rated gasoline equivalent of 68 mpg in combined city and highway driving, Honda said in a news release.

The driving range gives the sedan the best range of any electric vehicle without a combustion engine in the U.S., according to Honda. The Clarity Fuel Cell received a range rating 53 percent higher than the 240-mile range on its predecessor, the FCX Clarity, and 54 miles higher than the rival Toyota Mirai.

“Not only does the Clarity Fuel Cell fit five passengers and refuel in three to five minutes, it offers customers a driving range on par with gasoline-powered cars,” Steve Center, American Honda’s vice president of environmental business development, said in a statement. “The Clarity leads the pack with a 366 miles driving range rating, and with a growing network of hydrogen stations and fast fueling time, the zero-emissions family road trip is no longer science fiction.”

Honda said it will roll out the Clarity Fuel Cell “by the end of 2016” at its 12 fuel cell dealerships in California. The company said it would “further develop its dealer network as more hydrogen fueling stations become available.”

The Clarity Fuel Cell is the first of three versions of the sedan that Honda is scheduled to release over the next year or so. An all-electric version is due next year, as is a plug-in hybrid.

Designs and specifications for the other vehicles have yet to be released, but Honda said they will feature the same design and platform as the fuel cell version.

Pricing and production volume details have not yet been released. Honda executive vice president John Mendel told Automotive News in April that the automaker hopes the Clarity will sell near the volume of the Accord by 2030.

“We are strongly committed to doing a volume business with Clarity,” Mendel said.

A voicemail left for a Honda spokeswoman was not immediately returned.