Hydrogen

What is hydrogen and what type of energy is it? Well the answer is hydrogen is not an energy source but is one of the two natural elements found in water. The problem with hydrogen and the challenge for scientists is how to extract the water and the process so far has used large amounts of energy. Most car manufacturers have opted for a future of electric or hybrid vehicles but they are also up to date on advances in hydrogen technology. Many of the big brands are already making car models that work with hydrogen driven engines such as BMW with its Hydrogen 7. Hydrogen cars produce only water vapor to move and therefore emit no Co2.

Urban Riversimple Car

There have been many advances in hydrogen cars and one  which we liked a lot is the Riversimple Urban Car-RUC from a British Company called Riversimple. The car power is rooted in its cells, these combine oxygen from the air with hydrogen to create energy. You can go up to 186 miles with 2.2 pounds of liquid hydrogen. What comes out the tailpipe is water evaporation.

Open Source
The company placed the manufacturing details of the car on the Internet, in the spirit of “Open Source”. Open source means that other manufacturers may provide information on how to make the car and by adding their own innovations improve the quality of future vehicles. The car can reach up to 80 kilometers per hour, making it ideal to get around the city. The car can go from 0 to 48 mph in about 5.5 seconds. Riversimple was founded by Hugo Spowers, a former racing car driver and the company has some very advanced ideas although they are a pretty small team. Riversimple does not intend to sell cars but to implement a leasing system. Production is thought to start with 5.000 to 10.000 cars per year in small factories. Hugo left the world of motor racing because he did not like the environmental impact generated in this competition and started the company.

If you want to know about Riversimple can go to the following address. http://www.riversimple.com/