The really cool thing about this Riversimple Urban Car is that the fuel cell is going to be much smaller meaning that you will need less hydrogen on board.
The vehicle is no bigger than a Smart car, weighing just 350kg, and has been developed over three years by teams at Oxford and Cranfield universities. For a car of its type it is actually quite speedy reaching at around a bout 50mph which is great for the people that live in the city.
The power in this car actually comes from a very small 6kw fuel cell which is actually very small compared to the 100kw in the Honda Clarity. It uses a composite body to keep the weight down and four electric motors on each wheel, which double as brakes and electricity generators.
There is a bank of ultracapacitors to store this electricity, which in turn provides most of the accelerating power, allowing for a small fuel cell.
One of the really good things about the design to this new car is that once it is all ready it will be made available online for any car manufacturer to take into their own.
Something that is also very good to hear is that you can lease these vehicles and everything from the price of the fuel will be covered.
Hugo Spowers, head of Riversimple, said: "Cars evolved under very different constraints to those of today, so we must move on. The sale of cars still rewards the maximisation of resource use – whereas we now accept that we must minimize resource use.”
“The Riversimple Urban Car represents a major step towards practical 21st century personal transport and towards the fulfilment of my great-grandfather’s ambitions for accessible personal transport but this time combining his other passions: light weight and high efficiency,” said Piech.
The real question to ask is will they be upgrading things like used cars to make them greener? If you have recently gone out and purchased a Audi TT Roadster then you are not going to be pleased when you cannot upgrade it to make it a bit greener. Cheap Audiare just one of the brands that needs to be looked into.
Tags: audi, green cars