The New Green Car
The Riversimple urban car actually has a very small fuel cell and looks like it is going to be the smallest one to date so far.
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. It can reach 50mph and travel in excess of 200 miles, consuming the equivalent petrol energy of 300mpg in hydrogen.
Power comes from a 6kw fuel cell, which is tiny compared to the 100kw system powering 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.
Another big point to this car is that it allows you to store a lot of electricty within it which means you can get the most out of accelerating power.
Design for the Riversimple cars will be placed online in an ‘open source’ environment, meaning any small manufacturer can lease the design, better suiting local environments and allowing for the car to be built almost anywhere in the world.
One of the great things is that you can lease this car and the lease will actually cover you for the cost of the fuel too.
The head of Riversimple has always been a strong believer in pushing technology forward and he realises that this is going to be big. 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 likeused cars to make them greener? If you have recently gone out and purchased a Audi R8 then you are not going to be pleased when you cannot upgrade it to make it a bit greener. Audi Carsare just one of the brands that needs to be looked into.
Tags: Audi, green cars