The Riversimple urban car actually has a very small fuel cell and looks like it is going to be the smallest one to date so far.

The vehicle is no bigger than a Smart car, weighing just 350kg, and has been developed over three years by teams at Oxford and Cranfield universities. It can reach 50mph and travel in excess of 200 miles, consuming the equivalent petrol energy of 300mpg in hydrogen.

Power comes from a 6kw fuel cell, which is tiny compared to the 100kw system powering the Honda Clarity. it is very important to keep the weight down on this car as it allows the speed of the car to be heavily increased.

There is a bank of ultracapacitors to store this electricity, which in turn provides most of the accelerating power, allowing for a small fuel cell.

The great thing about this design is that it will be placed online making it available for all car manufactuers to use at their own will.

Something that is also very good to hear is that you can lease these vehicles and everything from the price of the fuel will be covered.

The head of Riversimple actually stated that we must push forward with the technology rather than get left behind. The sale of cars still rewards the maximisation of resource use whereas we now accept that we must minimize resource use.”

“The Riversimple Urban Car represents a major step towards practical 21st century personal transport and towards the fulfilment of my great-grandfather’s ambitions for accessible personal transport but this time combining his other passions: light weight and high efficiency,” said Piech.

The real question to ask is will they be upgrading things likeused cars to make them greener? If you have recently gone out and purchased a Audi TT Roadster then you are not going to be pleased when you cannot upgrade it to make it a bit greener. New Audi are just one of the brands that needs to be looked into.