Hydrogen-powered Riversimple Urban Car unveiled, makes your hybrid green with envy
By Tim Stevens 
posted June 16th 2009 7:53AM
posted June 16th 2009 7:53AM
[Via TG Daily]
posted June 16th 2009 7:53AM
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Well, at least it looks happy.
Happy because it just won the ugliest new car award, and happy because it is actually green, not just trying to be liek the electric and the hybrid.
It looks like the bizarre union of a Mazda 3 and and old french car... a Citroen?
And by bizarre union... I mean Harold and Maude.
@myself
Learn to read before posting.
@darkmax
Apart from the fact that it is not that green..... Harvesting hydrogen is very energy intensive and shipping this to fuel stations and then converting it back into electricity is very wasteful. It would be far better to simply send the electricity down the lines to charge a battery.
I wonder how many know who Harold and Maude are? That was a sweet Jag!
@coolblue: Do the separation with solar energy, and with the new tech that makes electrolysis much easier. Green.
Actually wind turbines driving electric generators are the best option for producing the hydrogen.
The problem is, refuelling stations are all owned by oil companies, and they want to use oil / natural gas to produce the hydrogen :(
So anything other than small-scale hydrogen projects - like this company - are an absolute non-starter as far as I'm concerned.
that is the ugliest pile of scrap metal i have ever seen
But my Prius can carry my eight-month-old and her mother and I on the freeway...
holy mother of god that thing is hideous.
And it's a coffin like all other green cars.
A competent team could produce something green that is as safe as a standard car.
being a coffin is part of the whole renewable resources thing dontcha know? When you rear-end a semi because the brakes are better at recharging the battery than stopping the car; they will just bury the whole smoldering mess and you get to feed a tree...
The designers where so disgusted with themselves they couldn't even bring themselves to paint it!
Looks like kjb went to the "buy a tank" school of crappy driving.
kjb,
you're a moron. it uses a carbon-fibre safety cell. it is anything but a 'coffin'.
@Idlemind
I thought that if the regenerative braking was more aggressive that the car tends to brake faster. Am I wrong in thinking this?
I don't understand why your let people think that a 2CV has not an enjoyable drive ?
It's a faboulous car (once you get used to the windscreen being 2 cm from the steering wheel) !
In a nice finish that's not matte... I like it better than the Smart Car....
New Batmobile?
i can think of no manlier car than this to replace the tumbler. this makes that old thing look like an electric scooter in comparison
Now, if they can make it look like a car, it would be AWESOME.
I'd rather have an EV, since they come with home chargers indefinitely and it costs way less to charge than it does to buy hydrogen.
How many mile do you get on a single charge? and how long does it take to fully charge as opposed to the couple of minute to fill this with hydrogen?
You'd be surprised, the hydrogen pumps are around the same price per litre as Petrol (As far as I know, correct me if I'm wrong). Also hydrogen is actually green rather than using electricity that's been produced by, wait for it, power stations.
You know, I don't have a single place anywhere near me that has hydrogen pumps. And I am sure not going in install a hydrogen pump at my home either - heh. Unfortunately, this type of fuel has such a hard road to ever become mainstream.
@ Chasethebase
Hydrogen is green where electricity isn't, because it's produced by power stations? Please enlighten me on the process of creating the hydrogen in the first place. Please, look it up, and then take that smug knowitall look off your face.
Methinks the rub would be that one gallon (a kilo) of hydrogen costs a helluva lot more than a gallon of unleaded... Alas I would be wrong...
Why aren't there more Hydrogen cars? Clearly they are superior to EVs. GM was pushing the whole we have a hydrogen fleet thing awhile back and I think Chrysler had theirs too, but I hadn't heard anything more about it until now.
The hydrogen is just an energy medium - you need electricity to make the hydrogen in the first place (currently), and the efficiency of that process means it's better to just bypass that step and stick the energy in electrically stored form directly on the vehicle (batteries).
The reason hydrogen appears appealing at the moment is down to the poor capacity of batteries, in comparison to a kilo of hydrogen, but the overall process makes it less efficient down the entire chain. If we figure a way of making hydrogen efficiently and/or without the use of traditional fossil-fuelled power stations, or if battery capacity significantly improves, then one or the other will start to take a lead.
Google hydrogen car, read up in Wikipedia and so on...there are so many if's and whens and targets and required breakthroughs it makes you dizzy. But if it all works out, good for the oil companies. They can keep pushing (probably liquid) fuel on us and won't go out of business like they would in a world driven by battery electric vehicles where you don't need them anymore.
There are breakthroughs in hydrogen production occurring all the time:
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2007a/070515WoodallHydrogen.html
Hydrogen fuel cells are very good in situations where there is little infrastructure of any kind; deserts, underwater, outer space... Those who are working toward fuel cells are working on the next generation of power BEYOND current hybrid and EV vehicles.
Looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.
"Obama Motors"
Hardly the Obama administration recently cut funding to the Hydrogen boondoggle.
That and it's an entirely UK-based project ...
VATICAN SECRETS REVEALED! : Pope mobile runs on ball sweat.
Anyone else think it looks like Darkwing Duck's airplane the Thunderquack?
I have no idea 'cause my memory sucks and I'm too lazy to google, but I still like the thought.
Holy Crap! I knew I'd seen it before! You sir have mad memory skills.
I'm thinking it looks a little more Goofy.
Those tires....THOSE TIRES!!!
Anyway, one motor per wheel? Not a good idea.
It might be a good idea. Efficiency of 1 larger engine is higher than 4 small ones, but think about the mechanical losses in the former; a four-wheel drive needs 3(!) differentials!
Synchronization is another thing, and I don't want to dream of what will happen if one of the engines hickups...
Exactly. Synchronization will be difficult in this.
I think synchronisation will be quite capably provided by the road surface.
Do you have images of one motor/wheel going slow, and another one spinning out? If you put identical amounts of power into two identical motors, they'll spin at pretty much exactly the same speed.
As long as the motors are fine, it's fine. Some motors tend to lock up when they burn out, that would suck.
"Some motors tend to lock up when they burn out, that would suck"
That's what we like to call a 'failure indicator'. How else would you know it's burnt out?
What if it that happens when you're driving at a considerably high speed?
Superhobo: There is no high speed. It's top speed is 50mph with a 90lb driver, going down hill with a brisk tailwind.