A CONCEPT car that attempts to sidestep the three main hurdles to the dream of hydrogen-fuelled highways was unveiled in London this week.
Like other hydrogen cars, the Riversimple Urban Car (pictured) is powered by a fuel cell that combines hydrogen with oxygen from the air to release energy and nothing more toxic than water. Ordinarily, these pose a problem for manufacturers as they contain expensive platinum, are difficult to make powerful enough to propel a car and use an explosive gas that is difficult to store. Yet by designing the RUC to be light and efficient these three problems are overcome, says Hugo Spowers of Riversimple.
The RUC is driven by four electric motors, one in each wheel. These recover energy from the wheels during braking, recouping as much as half of the energy that would otherwise be lost. It uses a small and relatively cheap 6-kilowatt fuel cell, compared with the 100-kilowatt cells in other hydrogen cars, such as Honda鈥檚 FCX Clarity. The fuel tank stores just 1 kilogram of hydrogen, but that is enough to travel 320 kilometres, says Spowers.
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鈥淭he fuel tank stores just 1 kilogram of hydrogen, but that is enough to travel 320 kilometres鈥�
The car鈥檚 overall design, but not that of its components such as the motors and fuel cell, will be open source; freely available for any person or company to use as long as they make public any modifications too. Spowers hopes to lease fleets of the car within five years.
