Earth Protect Blog

A hydrogen concept car that attempts to sidestep the three main hurdles to the dream of hydrogen-fuelled highways has been unveiled in London, UK.

The car weighs 772 pounds and can travel 186 miles on just 2.2 pounds of liquid hydrogen.

The Riversimple Urban Car fuel cell combines hydrogen with oxygen from the atmosphere to release energy and nothing more toxic than water as a byproduct.

The car's top speed is 50 miles per hour (80.4672 kilometres per hour), and it can accelerate from 0 to 30 mph (48 km/h) in 5.5 seconds. Even using hydrogen derived from natural gas, its well-to-wheel carbon emissions for urban driving are only 30 grams/km.

Riversimple’s founder and automotive engineer, Hugo Spowers, said that the company’s original, light design helps it overcome some of the drawbacks that have hampered the development of hydrogen cars.

The RUC is about the size of a Smart car, weighs 350 kilograms (772 pounds) and uses a relatively cheap 6 kilowatt fuel cell, compared to the more sophisticated 100 kW cell used by the FCX Clarity, Spowers added.