The prototype of the Riversimple Urban Car was presented in London in quite a high profile event which shows that perhaps the world is ready for hydrogen and, in fact, wants it on the market. The Riversimple hydrogen car will appear on the market in 2013, and has been developed thanks to investment from the Piech family.

In more than acceptable performance figures, the top speed is 80 km/hr and it has a range of about 400 km. It weighs only 350 kg and has a 6kw fuel cell system which can maintain cruise speeding; while a super condenser pack of 21kg stores up to 30 kw of energy when stopping, meaning that 15 kw of power is restored back to the four motors integrated into the wheels.

The real innovation is not just the technology, but also the fact that Riversimple has been built with an “open source” mentality, meaning other car manufacturers can utilise the potential, adapting and personalising the vehicle to their needs.

It could be a very short step from this point to a situation in which a company such as the VAG group might use the technology to build their own hydrogen car. If you’re interested, you can follow the project’s development on the official Riversimple site.

Continue reading: Hydrogen car ready for 2013: Riversimple Urban Car presented in London, the future is on its way

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These videos show some close-ups of the Mercedes GL 350 BlueTEC version. The diesel SUV is the ecological effort for this segment from Mercedes, presented at the New York show in a slight restyling.

The BlueTEC version is based on the 320 CDI with the same V6 three-litre engine with 211 hp. The car is equipped with a special filter system, with DeNox system that reduces NOx values by 80 percent, reducing consumption to 9 l/100km.

Continue reading: Mercedes GL 350 BlueTEC videos

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In an incredible move, Norway is planning a full overhaul of the car market, putting a stop to all sales of petrol, diesel and gas car models. The plan shows that willingly, the world could shake its dependence on oil supplies, and the laws are set to go into effect in 2015.

The drastic limitation is not the fruit of utopian environmentalists, but a concrete proposal from the Ministry of Finance and a realistic consideration of the market. When the current economic crisis is over, the idea is that the world will have to seriously start tackling the climate crisis, including placing our efforts on hybrid and electric models.

Given the low sales in the Norwegian car market, it could be tempting to think that there is not enough offer in the market to satisfy such rigid and severe restrictions. But given the developments that car manufacturers are investing in, and future cars that are already more modern, ecological and cleaner, it could be a reality. Norway can act independently of the EU, and looks to be seriously trail blazing on this front, without the same lobbying and vested interests from the automobile industry.

Source | ilSole24ore.com

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Rome’s ecological car show, the H2Roma, has started, with a week of models and events that is the biggest environmental car show in Italy.

30 models will be present at the show this year, from 13 automobile manufacturers. Expected visitor numbers are expected to be around 12,000 people.

One of the main attractions of this ecological car show is the possibility of test driving the cars and seeing up close the latest prototypes, for example the GLK BlueTEC Hybrid or the Nissan Denki Cube.

Among the most important companies at the show is BMW, Chevrolet, Citroën, Honda, Mercedes, Nissan, Opel, Peugeot, Saab, Smart, Toyota and Volvo. The H2Roma site has all the details on test drives and other events.

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