I never saw these images of the 2015 Honda FCV concept until now. Wish that Honda had preserved a bit more of the concept elements in the production Clarity, esp. the rear taillight treatment. I get a bit of NSX vibe in some of the design cues. Looks like the wheels made it over as is from the concept! Source URL: https://insideevs.com/honda-announces-upcoming-electric-phev-model-debuting-fcv-concept/
Yes, those tail light are a lot more thematically consistent with the front. I am surprised how much of this car made it to the final version, though. Looking at it you can definitely see it is a Clarity. Thanks for finding this. I've never seen these photos before.
The concept car looks a bit more rounded and slightly less angular. Although I like the current Clarity, I confess I like the concept rendition a bit better. I bet reviewers would have been more kind in their reviews of the concept’s aesthetics, had that turned out to be the actual Clarity...though the partial rear wheel covers are still there.
This is cool! I've never seen these either, but I'm fairly surprised at how much of the concept translates to the production version. I bought my Clarity almost in spite of the styling - loved the car, love the drive, wasn't sure about the style- but after having it in the driveway for the last 4 months, I can say I've fully come around and love the distinctive look. (That said, I do like the concept more...). I've owned a TON of cars but this has become my favorite...I'm hooked on EV motoring Sent from my iPad using Inside EVs
How cool would it have been if they had been able to keep the concept roof on the production Clarity?
Very helpful, Hobbesgsr! I can see now why they couldn't preserve the concept rear; the C pillar is extremely thick and the trunk opening would have been far too small for practical usage.
Very nice, thank you for sharing the side by side images. The production Clarity definitely looks sleeker, but many things wouldn't work for a production car. I am also surprised at how much of the styling carried over. A full glass roof would have been a nice touch on the Clarity, and help fit the namesake as well with a clear open view of the sky.
It looked like the concept roof was almost Tesla-like with it almost being a full piece of glass, but now seeing that production ev model photo it looks like it is just painted black with a normal windshield. I wonder how future production models will morph more and more into that concept design. By 2020 they could be indistinguishable.
Here's an even earlier 2013 version of the FCEV Concept car, showing a very aggressive full rear wheel skirt. Interesting to see the progression from concept to reality. What's funny to me is that the look of the wheels was largely preserved all the way to production!
Notice that the aerodynamic wheel fins are the correct direction on both sides on the concept, unlike the production car.
Wow! It's surprisingly close to the concept. I wish the rear fenders were as subtle as the concept's. Now, they bulge out a bit more, bring the wheel cover more attention. I also really like the origami-like wrapping of the concept's front fenders, though I can see how that would be difficult to bring to production.
The biggest problem with the concept car is that there’s no way to get into it...no door handles! That might have resulted in a recall!
Nah, it has a proximity sensors and facial recognition to detect if you are close by and automatically open the door for you
I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that. Just wait, one of these days our cars will be saying that to us.
