UK company building a hydrogen supercar that’ll weigh next to nothing

A UK company is in the process of building a hydrogen supercar that’ll weigh a mere 620kg (1,367lb).

The Welsh car maker is ‘pioneering the next generation of zero-emission vehicles’.

The problem they are attempting to solve is simple – heavy supercars use more resources and increase pollution.

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The problem with heavy cars

When cars are heavy they need to produce more power to counteract their heft.

The result is a double whammy of more resources being used on every car, embedded carbon in manufacturing, and more pollution being created – 78% of microplastics in the world’s oceans are from tires.

With battery electrification exacerbating the issue, scientists have warned that we are in danger of replacing the environmental crisis we are trying to remedy with another.

That’s as brands, including Alfa Romeo, end their internal combustion era.

This point is where a small Welsh car company, Riversimple, steps in.

Low-weight hydrogen supercar

Their first supercar, called Rasa, said in Riversimple’s own words, is ‘great to drive, safe to drive, fun to drive, light in every respect of the word, quick to refuel, and with a super strong framework of carbon fiber.’

It’s tiny, but not as small as the Peel P50.

Their next step is an attempt to rectify ‘the crisis of vehicle weight’ in partnership with postgraduate students at Coventry University’s Automotive and Transport Design course.

In short, no zero-emission car with a 644-kilometer (400-mile) range is available at much less than 2,000kg (4,409lb) – in fact, cars today are 25% heavier than they were seven years ago.

The UK-based circular and hydrogen car maker plans to remedy this with a car that falls precisely within that range, weighing only 620kg (1,367lb).

That’s thanks to its ultra-low, unsprung mass with carbon fiber chassis that’s 1,000kg (2,205lb) less than the battery electric Lotus Evija.

The hydrogen supercar will push the ‘limits of range, efficiency and lightweighting, using advanced carbon composite materials, inboard motors and brakes, lightweight fuel cell technology and supercapacitors’.

With a top speed of 161km/h (100mph), it will accelerate from 0-97km/h (0-60mph) in 3.5s and 0-161km/h (0-100mph) in 6.4s.

It also boasts a range of 660 kilometers (410 miles).

Alongside four inboard electric motors, its fuel cell is only 29kW, or 39bhp, thanks to the integration with supercaps – but its weight and aero-honing means it doesn’t need much to be fast.

What’s more, it can refill in five minutes.

It’s not the world’s first hydrogen-powered supercar, with Hyundai planning to launch its hydrogen-powered supercar in 2026.

“This car is an antidote to excess and power for the sake of it, and is an opportunity to redefine sports cars for the 21st century,” Riversimple founder and chief engineer, Hugo Spowers MBE, said.

“These supercars will be immense fun to drive and demonstrate exceptional vehicle dynamics, range, refuel time, light weight and, with Coventry University students’ help, style,” Spowers continued.

Build numbers will also be lightweight, with Riversimple producing between 10 and 20, with a price said to. be in the range of ‘rare collectible’.