UK FCEV maker Riversimple pivots to hydrogen-powered Audi A2

Hydrogen-focused start-up carmaker Riversimple has won a share of £1.7 million government grant to convert two old Audi A2s to demonstrate the viability of a lightweight fuel-cell production cars The project signals the end of the company’s 10-year-old Rasa two-seat development car as the company switches focus on developing a new, more practical four-seat production car codenamed ‘Runabout’. “The Rasa has been quite spectacular, and it attracts crowds wherever we go. But the feedback from beta testers is definitely to have something a little bit more practical. For example, you need a boot that a dog can jump into,” Fiona Spowers, head of communications and the wife of company founder Hugo, told Autocar. Under the so-called Zellor project (for zero emission lightweight long range), the twin Audi A2s are being converted fit hydrogen tanks in the space created by the model’s ‘sandwich’ floor construction which then feed a small fuel-cell stack. The electric motors will come from GreenFlux Motors based in Colchester, Essex with the power electronic converters supplied by TTPi of Nottingham under the project, which is funded by money from the Government’s £4 billion Drive35 programme in partnership with the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) and Innovate UK. Riversimple has been plugging away at the idea of a lightweight, low impact, hydrogen-powered car since 2007, partly backed by money from the Welsh government and from crowd-funding. The company however has struggled to achieve investment levels needed build a production car and is now ending developing of the carbon-fibre Rasa with its coupe shape and in-wheel motors in favour of a more conventional hatchback with in-board motors. It will also have an optional a top speed of 70mph, up from the standard 60mph. The choice of the Audi A2 is partly due to its lightweight aluminium construction and partly because Spowers himself is a long-term owner of a 2002 version of the ultra-efficient ‘3L’ model, which has now clocked up 345,000 miles. “In my view, this is one of the cleverest cars ever offered to the public,” he said in a Linkedin post last year. “The A2 will demonstrate that you can get a hydrogen package into a small, affordable, everyday runabout car,” Fiona Spowers said. One of the A2s to be used in the project was rescued ‘from a hedge' according to Spowers. The resurrection is in line with the company’s ingrained environmental philosophy that advocates recycling and reuse as much as possible. The Audis have now been stripped back to their aluminium shell to begin their refit as hydrogen powered machines ahead of their planned demonstration date in January 2027. Riversimple is sticking to a commitment to use low-powered 10kW fuel-cell units to both reduce weight and increase range. Spowers claims the cars will driver 400 miles on a full tank and weight around 900kg, up from the projected 580kg weight of the Rasa but below that of EV city cars. “The automotive industry is struggling with a trilemma: zero emission, lightweight, long range,” Hugo Spowers said in a statement. “This project is demonstrating that zero emission vehicles need not be heavy”. However Riversimple needs to find another source for its small fuel-cell stacks after its supplier Cummins decided to end production. The stack produced by Toyota for its Mirai fuel-cell model is too large, Spowers said. Riversimple has given no timing as when a production version of the Runabout will go on sale. “The timing is entirely contingent on having the scale-up funding,” Spowers said.

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UK FCEV maker Riversimple pivots to hydrogen-powered Audi A2

New project signals end of 10-year-old Rasa development car as firm switches to work on more practical Runabout

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UK FCEV maker Riversimple pivots to hydrogen-powered Audi A2

New project signals end of 10-year-old Rasa development car as firm switches to work on more practical Runabout

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