Is this ‘water car’ the future of driving?
IT looks like something from science fiction, runs on hydrogen and pumps out no emissions – except for pure water.
Best still, its makers claim, it does the equivalent of a staggering 250 miles to the gallon. So it’s little wonder this British-built electric car is being spoken of as the future of motoring.
Launched today, the two-seater with gullwing doors generates its own electrical current using hydrogen, the flammable gas that once provided the lift in Zeppelins.
It even does nought to 60mph in a respectable ten seconds. However, lovers of life in the fast lane may be disappointed – 60 is also its top speed.
And with only 14 hydrogen filling points in the UK, much of the fuel will be taken up getting to and from the ‘gas’ station.
The Riversimple Rasa, named after the Latin for ‘clean slate’, has been developed from scratch over 15 years by a band of UK engineers and entrepreneurs.
Its creators, based in Llandrindod Wells in
‘Safer than
petrol’
Wales, have not only defied the conventional wisdom about how to build cars. They also have an unusual commercial strategy, with the vehicles to be leased to customers on a service contract for about £500 a month rather than sold outright.
That is roughly the same cost as leasing and running a diesel Volkswagen Golf, they say, when fuel, insurance and other running costs are factored in. The company will cover all repair, maintenance, insurance and fuel expenses.
The Rasa, which is expected to be on the road by 2018, uses a hi-tech fuel cell to generate electricity from hydrogen gas stored under pressure in a tank in the boot.
This drives four motors in each of the wheels. The process also produces water, which evaporates into the air or dribbles onto the road.
The best known hydrogen powered craft, Zeppelins, fell out of favour after one crashed in flames in the 1937 Hindenburg disaster which left 36 dead.
But Hugo Spowers of Riversimple, the firm behind the new car, insists hydrogen is safer than petrol because it is contained in a pressurised tank. Even if it did leak in a crash, he says, the gas would dissipate upwards not ‘pool’ under the vehicle.
He added: ‘Every aspect of the Rasa has been tailor-made and interrogated for light- ness, strength, affordability and safety, to produce a vehicle that will maximise hydrogen as a fuel source and minimise pollution.
‘Customers will never actually buy the car and experience the burden of depreciation - they will simply exchange or return it at the end of the ownership period.’ The Rasa is less than half the weight of a typical small car and can travel 300 miles on one tank of hydrogen.
Its futuristic design is the work of Chris Reitz, one of Europe’s leading car designers. Mr Spowers said: ‘We really have started from a clean sheet.’