Currently reading: Aston Martin makes history with Hybrid Hydrogen Rapide S
Hybrid Hydrogen Rapide S racer becomes first to compete in international racing

An Aston Martin Rapide S Hybrid has become the first race car to complete emissions-free laps of an international motor race.

The car, using a Hybrid Hydrogen system, also became the first car of its kind to compete in an international race during the Nürburgring 24 Hours.

Aston Martin CEO Dr Ulrich Bez led the Rapide S driver line-up. He said the target of achieving a complete lap of the 12.8mile Nürburgring course was “very ambitious”.

The car was the sole entry within the special E1-XP2 race classification. The Rapide S used was fitted with a hydrogen fuel supply system, tank and proprietary engine management system. Proving the durability of the concept, the system ran faultlessly throughout the race.

Fuel refills took just 30 seconds with the hydrogen being stored at 350 bars of pressure.

During the event the Aston Martin reached a top speed of around 160mph, running on nothing but pure hydrogen.

 

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supertax 22 May 2013

They will if its cheaper than

They will if its cheaper than petrol.

 

MikeSpencer 22 May 2013

supertax wrote: They will if

supertax wrote:

They will if its cheaper than petrol.

 

Agreed, but it will need some heavyweight capital investment to make it so. For example, Shell estimated it could easly cost $20bn to set up a hydrogen infrastructure in the US alone. That's serious money to spend if there are no guarantees your investment will pay off with manufacturers building and consumers buying hydrogen-powered cars. Conceptually it's the best long term solution but pragmatically I can see the need for a number of smaller steps to be taken first before reaching this end goal, e.g. pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. Fossil fuels to hydrogen in one step would be like launching your first satellite into space and then next deciding to walk on the moon - too ambitious.

MikeSpencer 21 May 2013

Hydrogen is currently...

difficult/expensive to extract, transport and store. Until that changes nobody will consider using it as a fuel to power mainstream cars.

xxxx 21 May 2013

lack of posts

Judging by the lack of post it appears a case of who cares about Hydrogen.