British company Riversimple has unveiled their ultra lightweight hydrogen fuel cell car that has a 200 mile range on one tank of hydrogen and a top speed of 50 mph. The car weighs just 770 pounds. Riversimple has a unique concept for the car; it only leases the car and does not sell it. Currently it is available only in Britain and costs about 200 pounds per month including hydrogen.

Watch the company video:

Fuel Cell Hybrids
Fuel cell hybrids are powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and an energy storage system, such as an electric battery. They don’t have internal combustion engines.

We’re currently defining the energy storage system requirements for fuel cell hybrids. This involves determining trade-offs among different combinations of fuel cell and energy storage system sizes.

Hydrogen Hybrid with a Small Fuel Cell
Also, we’ve explored the benefits of using a small fuel cell in a hydrogen hybrid vehicle. A hydrogen hybrid has an internal combustion engine fueled by hydrogen as well as an energy storage system (e.g., battery), much like a conventional hybrid.

In a hydrogen hybrid, most of the energy used by the vehicle remains at a much lower power level than its peak power. Therefore, adding a small fuel cell to supply most of the energy can potentially:

* Improve efficiency because fuels cells are more efficient than internal combustion engines
* Improve the vehicle’s range because a more efficient vehicle can travel further on the same amount of hydrogen
* Involve less risk than mass marketing large fuel cells.

We’ve conducted analyses to determine the range, efficiency, and relative cost benefits from using a small fuel cell in a hydrogen hybrid. We then compared these results to a hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicle and a fuel cell hybrid.

Hydrogen Fuel Costs
The success of our nation’s hydrogen economy relies heavily on the cost of hydrogen fuel. Hydrogen can be used more efficiently than gasoline, which should help relax the hydrogen fuel cost target. Therefore, we’re estimating the relative efficiency of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to gasoline-powered vehicles to help find a hydrogen fuel target that provides the same cost per mile of driving.

BYD (Build Your Dreams) DM (Dual Mode) is a plug-in electric hybrid car that is currently available in China. Warren Buffet who has a keen eye for discovering hidden gems has reportedly invested HKD 1.8 billion for roughly a 10% stake in Shenzhen based BYD. BYD DM uses an electric motor combined with a 67 hp, 1 liter gasoline engine.

The vehicle features two electric outlets - one for a quick battery charge (under 10 minutes) and one for a full battery charge which requires about 9 hours via a household electric connection. The automaker claims the car go about 60 miles on the quick charge and about 250 miles on a full charge when combined with the gasoline engine.

If the current U.S. vehicle fleet were replaced overnight with plug-in hybrid vehicles, oil consumption would decrease by 70 to 90 percent, eliminating the need for oil imports and leaving the U.S. self-sufficient in oil for many years to come. Even if the electrical power for those vehicles were drawn from coal-fired power plants, CO2 emissions would drop by more than half. If the power were produced by renewable energy sources, and the fuel in the tank were bio diesel or ethanol, the proposition gets exponentially better. It won’t be until 2011 before BYD DM is available in the US, maybe even later.

Watch this video by BYD:

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