New records for the unknown Riversimple Rasa

Having driven the Honda FCV in Tokyo last year we’ve been flying the hydrogen flag and spreading the gospel to anyone who will listen. And while the FCV is a fabulous leap in clean technology, its family sized conventional proportions don’t exactly make the technology look or feel as sexy at it should.

Say hello then to the two-seater Riversimple Rasa hydrogen car, a completely unknown Welsh company until the internet got word of it today. Backed on a shoe-string 2 million Euro grant from the EU, this open-source company is increasing the rate of hybrid development for all brands.

Key to the Riversimple Rasa is its low weight and relative simplicity; for starters the carbon composite and aluminium design weighs 580 kilograms (which is about 200 kilos less than a Formula One car) and the drivetrain is reduced to 18 moving parts so not a lot can go wrong and the R&D is kept to a streamlined operation.

Now for some numbers: With a motor on each wheel the Riversimple Rasa produces 40g of C02 per kilometre and can theoretically achieve a distance of 482 kilometres on 1.5 kilograms of hydrogen.  The electric motors are designed to act as highly efficient generators and under heavy braking can recover close to 70% in kinetic energy while the small 8.5kW fuel cell combines hydrogen with oxygen to form electricity. You witness the reaction as water out the ‘exhaust’pipe.

Top speed is limited to 100km/h but that’s merely a temporary ceiling while the 10 second acceleration time to achieve this maximum speed better highlights the car’s lightness and instant torque delivery. Riversimple is proud of the fact the rasa can sustain this performance for long periods.

Riversimple will produce a run of 20 trial Rasas to be used in a 12-month trial but does plan a 3500 production run for 2108.