A new hydrogen-powered car, whose designs will be “open source” and posted for free use on the web, was unveiled today in London. The company behind the Riversimple urban car claim the new model proves hydrogen automotive technology is ready for roll-out now rather than in 10 years’ time.
The open-source approach means entrepreneurs around the world could download the designs and manufacture the two-seater prototype locally for free.
The car, which drove in to the launch event, is capable of a 50mph top speed, 0-30mph acceleration in 5.5 seconds, and has a 240 mile range. The car’s backers say it has greenhouse gas emissions of 30g/km CO2, less than a third of the latest hybrid petrol cars such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight.
The lightweight Smart car-size vehicle uses hydrogen in a modest 6kW fuel cell, and – in the case of this prototype – uses hydrogen converted from natural gas. Hydrogen can also be created from water using electrolysis and potentially even from bio-fuels.
By Adam Shake •
October 10, 2008
Would owning 1/1000th of a Community Co-op Hydrogen Station be worth $2,000.00 to you? Greg Blencoe, CEO of Hydrogen Discoveries, Inc. thinks it would be, and he’s come up with an ingenious idea that might help “fuel” the hydrogen station infrastructure.
By Adam Shake •
October 8, 2008
Ten Things You Should Know About A Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure For Automobiles.
By Reenita Malhotra •
October 6, 2008
Greg Frenette, a lead engineer at Ford Motors, said last week that it may take at least 20 years before hydrogen-powered cars become widely available because obtaining the fuel is so costly and difficult. But the latest news from the Reuters Global Environment Summit is that these zero emissions cars could become a reality in California very soon as the state plans to build out “Hydrogen Cities” to support the hydrogen car industry.
By Kira Marchenese •
August 21, 2007
The author of today’s post, Sheryl Canter, is an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles got a big boost when President Bush made them part of his 2003 State of the Union address:
Tonight I’m proposing $1.2 billion in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles… With a new national commitment, our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to taking these cars from laboratory to showroom, so that
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