Hot air and emission-free cars

When Honda announced the launch of its prototype hydrogen car, the FCX Clarity, the revving noise of Internet traffic was practically deafening.

Short of an auto section’s front page, a product launch isn’t necessarily the kind of story that grabs much attention (unless, for example, someone leaks your release schedule for the next five years). But with the added green sheen of an alternative power source, suddenly the launch of another car is news worth reading.

And to richen the pot, Honda also attached a trend even more tried-and-true than environmentalism: celebrity obsession.

Though the $100,000 vehicles aren’t technically for sale, Honda’s first five lessees include film producer Ron Yerxa, actress Jamie Lee Curtis and her husband, mockumentarian Christopher Guest. Shelling out $600 a month for the privilege, these celebrities are hardly the first to attach themselves publicly to a vehicle, joining luminaries like Mr. Universe cum Mr. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In fact, as a recent article in the Los Angeles Times shows, low or zero-emission cars are already de rigueur fashion symbols for LA’s celebrity set, with stars clamouring for the chance to own hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles. But the same article showcases one of the pitfalls of placing image-driven celebs at the forefront of green technologies: the addictive allure of the bright and shiny.

Paul Haggis, for example, is noted to have four Toyota Priuses. While this means that the writer/director of Crash owns four fuel efficient and low-emission vehicles, it also means that he has quadrupled his contribution to the construction process, which isn’t emission free, to say nothing of his desire for still more vehicles.

Honda itself acknowledges that future lessees won’t all be celebrities, with some contracts available to the common folk. Which is good, because if the rich and famous can have as many motorized fashion accessories as they could take who knows how many would have been left?