UK's Riversimple recently unveiled a two seater hydrogen urban vehicle prototype that will get 300mpg. The zero emissions car is being marketing with an open source business model, similar to an open-source software package that will get tweaked and improved by the user community.
The Riversimple urban car is a hybrid two-seater, hydrogen powered 6kW fuel cell driving four wheel mounted motors, made from carbon composites, with a designed 300mpg (UK gallon, energy equivalent), an 80kph (50mph) top speed and 322km (200mi) range. The vehicle weighs 350kgs and has a 0-30mph (0-46kph) acceleration of 5.5seconds.
The hybrid design uses ultra-capacitors for very high power for acceleration (15kW), and the ultra-capacitors are recharged during braking (30kW). BOC, a large UK company, will supply the hydrogen refueling stations in a pilot scheme to be launched next year and ahead of the car's production planned for 2013.
Riversimple is licensing its designs to the independent open source organization 40 Fires Foundation which is a not-for-profit company that will make the open source designs.
Riversimple plans to lease the cars rather than sell them, with a lease estimated at £200 ($315) per month including maintenance and fuel. The idea is to align manufacturer and consumer aims and share a common interest in maximum efficient cars, minimum materials usage and long product life.
Visit: www.riversimple.com
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I TRIED to do some research on this 40 Fires Foundation and I'm coming up blank. The only hits from a Google was a couple of Wiki links from www.40fires.org and a few articale with the same Riversimple photos and press release snipets.
But what is this 40 Fires Foundation. Nothing.
Has any one heard of these folks and what they are up to?
written by Edllet , June 18, 2009