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A new concept car from Volkswagen may have the looks of an old 1950s Samba Bus (you know, one of those cool hippy camper vans), but under the hood is technology that's straight out of 2050. The Up! Blue is the third and latest design from the company's Up! range of concept cars.
Powering the vehicle is a high temperature fuel cell, which generates electricity from hydrogen and stores it in 12 lithium-ion batteries. These are then used to drive a hefty electric motor which can generate enough torque to drive the vehicle up to 121km/h.
It can be used as a plug-in electric car, getting 105km out of the batteries alone, or as a hydrogen car, which gives 250km from a fill-up. This means that if the car is both charged and filled, using both options should allow you 354 km. The high-temperature fuel cell has been developed by VW themselves, and they claim that it's more efficient, requiring less energy to cool itself and so converts more hydrogen to usable electricity. It's also simpler to construct, so should be considerably cheaper than current models.
As well as this, there are solar panels on the roof, which can constantly trickle-charge the batteries. If you live in rainy Old Blighty, however, this might not add all that much to your range.
Before you get too carried away, though, remember that this is a concept. Sadly you can't buy one yet. But VW are working on it, and they hope to have the cars in dealerships by the end of the decade. Check out CNET NEWS.com for more taster images.
16 November 2007 04:12pm
OK, sounds great -- electric car, fuel cell, plug-in... But you didn't mention what kind of FUEL it uses to make the hydrogen!!!!!
16 November 2007 05:10pm
Fair point Lance - I think that's the answer the whole world is waiting for on hydrogen cars. Will the hydrogen come from water using electrolysis, with the electricity provided by renewables such as wind and solar? Or will it come from bacteria, as two chaps from Penn State Uni suggested earlier this week? Personally, I wonder why the big motoring names are putting so much R&D cash into developing hydrogen concepts when no one's cracked the 'creating hydrogen greenly' conundrum. Electric cars, on the other hand, are here now and proven.
13 December 2007 07:20pm
dude this is like so environmentally friendly thats awesomee!
thanks world for making a car that will help de-pollute the air in the world.
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