Rasa, a hydrogen-powered city car for the masses

[iveyjh]

Thought this was interesting.


Riversimple]Riversimple launches Rasa, a hydrogen-powered city car for the masses launches Rasa, a hydrogen-powered city car for the masses

[Daox]

Very VW XL1ish. I'm thinking more of the older prototype, not as much the "production" car. I like it.

I'd rather not see a fuel cell in it. EV or small gas engine would be fine.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by Daox

I'd rather not see a fuel cell in it. EV or small gas engine would be fine.

I think the Europeans are on a carbon footprint curve, and fuel cells are where it's at.

[Daox]

I don't want to derail this thread, but I don't see how that makes sense. EV would definitely be the way to go then IMO. France is primarily powered by nukes, Germany has massive solar, Spain has tons of wind power... Why rely on hydrogen?

[rmay635703]

I wonder how many Watt hours per mile that particular car would use at 65mph?

Even My 900lb Subaru 360 needed 15hp to go 68mph

Cheers
Ryan

[Stubby79]

Looks like a mini 350z. And/or the Smart Sport. I want one.
Hydrogen = electric. Modify it to hold some batteries and off you go.

[Daox]

You still have to get hydrogen from somewhere though, and its either from fossil fuels or electrolysis as far as I know. Both are more carbon intensive than just using batteries.

[RustyLugNut]

Originally Posted by Daox

You still have to get hydrogen from somewhere though, and its either from fossil fuels or electrolysis as far as I know. Both are more carbon intensive than just using batteries.

Currently, natural gas is the cheapest source of hydrogen and electrolysis is doable but inefficient.

However, hydrogen is far more energy dense than current or near term battery solutions. With advances in catalyst science and hydrogen storage, a 300 mile range in a fuel cell vehicle will become much cheaper and already has.

All that is needed is the fueling infrastructure. And, the fuel source.

Once renewable energy sources reach the point of useful excess, this excess can be stored via hydrogen. Much like battery storage, this hydrogen can be used to level loads or to fuel transport. Even if a relatively inefficient electrolyzer is used, it has storage value since the hydrogen then represents "lost energy" that would have been dumped. Much the same way aluminum processing plants take advantage of being situated along cheap electrical grids such as the Niagara and Columbia Rivers. Excess hydro power is "stored" in the processed aluminum. As inefficient energy wise as the process is, one could re- oxidize the aluminum back to bauxite and derive the energy there-in at any time in the future.

Couple this with the small (3.3 kg) fuel load due to the efficiency of this vehicle and you could power many longer range vehicles such as this.

Battery vehicles still make sense for city cars. But when you need several hundred miles of range and fast refueling, hydrogen fuel cells bear investigation.

[RustyLugNut]

PS

This car represents a far better market solution than the winner of the both classes of the Xprize which was won by "gamer solutions" that have little practicality and have resulted in no benefit to the transportation sectors.

Yes, this car does leverage half a decade advance in both price and performance of fuel cells, but it is still relatively "practical".

[Stubby79]

I like the idea of how little it weighs, compared to anything else being produced these days....that alone would help it consume half the energy of a regular vehicle, and would be prefect for someone like me to commute in.

I'm disgusted at how much additional weight we have to move, just to get around in an enclosed cabin for comfort.