This is the Eco-Runner, a quirky-looking hydrogen car that aims to set the world record for the longest distance driven without refueling.
The Eco-Runner can travel up to 2,000+ km (1,240+ miles) on a tank, this means it could theoretically drive from San Francisco to Las Vegas and back on a single tank.
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The car was designed by a team of students at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and it took a long time to complete.
This is actually the latest of a series of prototypes.
The upcoming Eco-Runner XIII (pictured below)
The first prototype dubbed Eco-Runner I was launched in 2005, and the university spent the last two decades perfecting the project.
The University documents progress with regular updates across social media and in a blog.
And in the latest blog post, the students explain that managing energy loss and reducing weight is the biggest challenge.
“The body department focused on creating an aeroshell that was as lightweight as possible without breaking,” the blog post reads.
They ditched steel whenever and wherever possible and replaced it with carbon fiber, and they created a single-piece bubble-shaped structure to reduce the weight even further.
The result is outstanding: the car only weighs 147 pounds – or 67 kilograms.
The team will attempt to set a new record in June, with a targeted distance of 1,276 miles (2,055 km).
This is of course just a prototype and it’s still far from looking and driving like a ‘normal’ car.
Aside from the bubble shape, it has a top speed of just 15.5 mph (25 km/h), which makes it too slow for the real world, and basically no interior.
Having said that, automakers have tried figuring out a way to use hydrogen fuel cells instead of batteries for their EVs for a while now.
It never really caught on and, at the time of writing, there are a handful of hydrogen cars on the market.
Hopefully, independent projects such as the Eco-Runner will play their part.
