I reached out to Honda to find out if there are car rental days beyond what SoCal Clarity FCV lessees signed up for and they said yes.
Late last July I got an official response from Honda in regards to an update I wrote about what Honda was doing for their Honda Clarity Fuel Cell Vehicle lessees during the last hydrogen shortage localized in Southern California so I recently reached out to them again. As per Honda Communications earlier this week (Sept. 20,2018) “Honda Fuel Cell owners can use the Avis car rental through the supply issue.”
Here’s Honda’s complete statement,
Yes, Honda Clarity Fuel Cell owners can use the Avis car rental through the supply issue. They need to follow the directions in order to utilize the car rental that was given to them in their “welcome” packet. There are certain login credentials that the owner needs to use. Honda will then credit their account with the days that they use, so it will not impact their allocated 21 days that is part of their lease terms.
Full disclosure, I’m not an actual Honda Clarity Fuel Cell Vehicle owner, just an observer of this situation.
That being said, although I’ve seen some mixed experiences with Honda Clarity FCV lessees and Honda customer service when it comes to these additional rental days during this hydrogen supply shortage, hopefully, this official statement will help clear the air, additional rental days are available.
If you’re looking for a quick recap of this situation, here’s what I’ve covered.
- Aug 3- Air Products wraps up its previous shortage that started back in July.
- Sept. 12- Unrelated to this shortage, close to half of ALL stations in SoCal undergoing maintenance or repairs.
- Sept. 13 – Air Products unofficially confirms H2 shortage on the way.
- Sept 15- Air Products releases statment via Toyota.
- Sept 19- SoCal FCV owners coping with H2 shortage, Toyota opens Port of LB, Honda doling out help case by case
As of this writing, there still is a hydrogen supply shortage going on with the overall hydrogen supply, as mentioned in my previous article, stabilizing to a new normal. This new normal means SoCal Hydrogen stations are running dry within hours of getting filled leaving FCV owners constantly checking on station updates for H2 levels.
Here’s a graph from the past 72 hours of the hydrogen supply in all of California from True Zero stations. 
As the weekend hit, overall levels keep reaching new lows despite stations filling to capacity during the late night hours. I’m getting my information from h2-ca.com which shows individual graphs for the last three days on each station as well. Popular stations like Lawndale take a huge hit from owners monitoring its level and filling as soon as fresh H2 arrives, then, H2 levels gradually lower within hours as the day goes on.
Relief, however little, might be on the way as the Hydrogen station in Torrance is slated to reopen on the 25th later in the afternoon. This is one of the few stations with a direct H2 pipeline from a nearby Air Products facility so this station, at least, will be easier to refill however stifled H2 production is at the moment.
Supply of H2 seems to be coming back, but what we got now is the old “Panic Mode” where all those Mirai rush to the station as soon as fuel is delivered. These people seem to have their Apple iPhones implanted in their brains! The other day I followed a Mirai who only took 1 Kg!
You can see the graphs at h2-ca.com. Absolute panic. Stations get drained as soon as they get fuel, not as people need it.
Shell over in Torrance is a joke. They’ve been down three times in the 14 months. And for long periods too. This latest one.. they’ve been changing their date at least four times already. It was supposed to be up and running last week Monday… then Wednesday, then Friday, now next week. Hopefully they’ll their sh!!!!t ready one of these days because, with two dispensers and a pipeline, they are the main station in the South Bay. When they go down, Long Beach and Lawndale go dry and so on….
It’s good to know that AHM will provide rental cars… but WHY DIDN’T THEY SEND ME AN EMAIL?
Seriously… you know who you are…. how about keeping us customers in the loop? AHM has our email addresses. It was part of the sign up process.
BTW, where did you get this “Honda Communication” about Avis and the rental cars during the fuel “supply issue”?
I don’t recall getting ANY communications from AHM about my Clarity FCEV in the last 14 months.
Someone from Honda’s Public relations team may or may not have contacted me after I put out that post titled, “Honda Clarity FCV owners getting little to no support from Honda during SoCal Hydrogen fuel shortage.” I suppose they wanted to correct what my title implied, that Honda doesn’t, for the lack of a better word, care.
Ya, not sure why they don’t inform lessees. As one Clarity owner’s experience talking with Honda Cust. Svc, it’s technically not Honda’s problem, with this supply issue. Like, nothing’s wrong with the Clarity FCV under the hood so, why help?
Really? That’s unfortunate. It’s a new technology and it would behoove Honda to keep a good dialogue with FCV lessees and them.