Having made his name as a race car designer in the 1980s, Hugo Spowers left the industry because of concerns about its environmental impact. While studying for an MBA at Cranfield University, he examined the commercial feasibility of hydrogen cars. Jon Severn met Hugo Spowers to see the car and discuss the underlying philosophies.
There are some who would disagree, but let us work on the assumption that the world's resources are finite and that manufacturing and operating conventional cars consumes too many resources to be sustainable in the long term. Automotive manufacturers are developing technologies that offer incremental improvements, but not the step change that is needed according to Hugo Spowers, the founder of Riversimple (Fig.1). He believes that automotive manufacturers have gone down a road from which there is no return, perhaps unavoidably, because they have to do exactly the right things as far as their shareholders are concerned. But it is not the right thing for the future of our planet.
"What is needed is a fresh approach," says Spowers, "which is something that automotive manufacturers simply cannot do because they are bound to prioritise return for their shareholders and they have made huge investments in technologies for steel bodies and internal combustion engines.
To address this requires an outlier, an organisation without corporate or technological baggage. Being a start-up certainly has its difficulties at times but it is a huge luxury for us to be able to start with a clean sheet of paper."
Riversimple, which was founded to "work systematically towards the elimination of the environmental impact of personal mobility," has worked with academic and industrial partners - and with UK Government funding - to create the Morgan LIFECar hydrogen car (Fig.2) and a compact urban car. The technology demonstrator for the latter was unveiled in June 2009 (Fig.3) and this will be followed by a batch of ten cars for testing, then 50 prototypes for field testing.
Innovative features in the urban car include a carbon-fibre composite body, four wheel-mounted electric motors, no gearbox or transmission, highly efficient regenerative braking, a hydrogen fuel cell to generate electricity and a set of ultracapacitors to store energy from regenerative braking. However, the most important aspect of the car's design is the overall concept and the way in which it has been designed as an integrated system.
Spowers explains why most fuel cell vehicles are inherently flawed: "Other fuel cell cars tend to be based on conventional car technology re-engineered to slot in a fuel cell. This means that they require both power and power density that challenge the nascent technology of fuel cells and they inherit steel body technology that has been developed to withstand the forces imposed by a heavy internal combustion engine and gearbox in the event of a crash.
The resultant heavy body generates its own kinetic energy and the greater the kinetic energy, the harder it is to manage that energy. This inevitably leads to more weight, which requires more power, and so on - a mass compounding strategy. If you start from a clean sheet of paper you can adopt a very different approach."
Riversimple's urban car has therefore been designed around a fuel cell. Furthermore, the car's design decouples the acceleration and cruise demands on the power source by using ultracapacitors to store energy for acceleration. This means that the fuel cell only needs to generate enough power for cruise conditions, which is around one-fifth of that required for acceleration (Fig.4). Not only does this enable the fuel cell to be almost one-fifth of the power and power density - and therefore much cheaper - but it also means the fuel cell is not oversized for 95 per cent of the time. In addition, the body structure can be lighter as well; hence other components - including motors and suspension components - can be smaller and lighter. In other words, starting from a clean sheet of paper, taking a systemic approach to the design, and decoupling the cruise and acceleration requirements initiates a virtuous circle of 'mass decompounding.' Furthermore, this is all entirely feasible and does not rely on technologies that are years away from being production-ready.
"The technologies used in our car are available now and the costs are bearable," stresses Spowers. "You often hear people saying that the technologies are not yet ready to enable sustainable transport to be developed, but the principal barriers are due to people, politics and business, not the technologies."
Although the technologies are currently available, the structure of today's automotive industry means that they cannot be brought together by existing automakers to deliver the step-change in sustainability that Spowers believes to be necessary and achievable: "I am not blaming the car manufacturers for this; it is simply that they cannot reach that end point from where they are now. What you need is a fresh approach in which system integration can play a more important part than specialisation; looking at the car as a complete system yields far greater gains than, say, trying to find a five per cent improvement in body weight or engine fuel economy. Look at the early Lotus or Cooper cars: Colin Chapman and John Cooper simply took readily available engines and gearboxes and reconfigured the overall package, making world-beating race cars without spending the vast sums of money that the likes of Ferrari were. Colin Chapman, in particular, recognised the benefits of lightness and the fact that lightness needs less power for acceleration and allows faster cornering, which compounds the benefit because you do not need as much power to accelerate out of the corner.
"A typical Chapman-designed component would perform three functions and not carry any excess material, which is something you can only do if you design in a systemic way."
While Spowers admits to being more of an engineering designer than a 'hands on' engineer, he is passionate about his Bristol 401, a 1949 car that also benefits from this type of synthesis. Very advanced for its time, the Bristol 401 features a lightweight, aerodynamic body that seats five in comfort, pushbuttons for door handles, rack-and-pinion steering and excellent long-distance touring capabilities despite having an engine of less than two litres.
While Riversimple's urban car follows similar system-integration principles to those in early Lotus and Cooper cars, it differs in one very important aspect: it must last considerably longer. Whereas the Lotus and Cooper cars were designed to win races, Riversimple wants its cars to last 15 to 20 years, which is about four times longer than today's conventional cars. Again, Spowers fully appreciates the reasons behind car manufacturers doing things 'their' way but he explains how Riversimple's approach is fundamentally more sustainable: "We will build cars to lease not sell, which rewards longevity and low running costs rather than obsolescence and high running costs. This means that the manufacturer and consumer share a common goal in that they want the car to last. It also allows us to factor in this longevity at the design stage. So, for example, even though today's composites are difficult to recycle, we believe a composite body is more sustainable than a steel body, plus it works out more cost-effective when you look at the car's life cycle and does not increase the price to the consumer. This is because the lighter construction reduces the cost of the powertrain and the fuel cost, also covered by the monthly payments, over the vehicle life."
The leasing or 'sale of service' model is not unique (it is used for aircraft engines, for example) but Riversimple's plan to lease from its component suppliers is novel. In early discussion with potential suppliers, some have shied away from the leasing business model but others have been very receptive, especially those supplying the higher-value components and the newer technologies. For example, much of the value in a fuel cell exists in platinum catalysts (which can be readily recycled) and bipolar plates (which can be reused with almost no work). This is in stark contrast to an internal combustion engine in which the value lies in the machining tolerance; hence when the components are worn the engine is almost worthless. For a manufacturer of fuel cells, it therefore makes good business sense to retain the product on the balance sheet rather than sell it. Expecting manufacturers of 'consumable' parts to be against the idea, Spowers was pleasantly surprised to find a tyre manufacturer that is very enthusiastic because it already appreciates the environmental and long-term business benefits of leasing. Of course, it should also be remembered that many Tier 1 automotive suppliers have poor relationships with the automakers, feeling that they are continually being beaten down on price to the point where profitability and survival are threatened. To them, the idea of working in a relationship more akin to a partnership, with shared rather than polarised interests in each transaction, seems most attractive!
Interestingly, today's poor economic climate and the corresponding reduction in demand for cars makes some businesses more receptive to the idea of leasing. This is because automotive manufacturers and their suppliers are currently experiencing a dramatic reduction in demand and, therefore revenue. However, if the cars (and components) on the road today had been leased rather than sold, the manufacturers would still have a resilient revenue stream despite the drop in demand for new cars.
Lease costs for Riversimple's urban car are expected to be similar to the cost of owning a Smart car over a three-year period, with the lease price including servicing, repairs, fuel and, potentially, upgrades. This implies that if, say, there is a new development in electric motors, the car might be upgraded at no cost to the consumer so that the fuel consumption is reduced for the benefit of the manufacturer and the environment (Fig.5). The sale-of-service business model has the added advantage that Riversimple also has access to the used-car market, which is bigger than the market for new cars.
Something else that is integral to Riversimple's business model is distributed human-scale manufacturing. Without a steel body or internal combustion engine, the need for economies of scale is diminished (Fig.6). Vehicles can therefore be manufactured close to the point of demand and without the need for heavy investment in presses or automation. Without these barriers to entry, it is much easier for other companies to start manufacturing the cars, yet all of the manufacturers can benefit from centralised sourcing of major components to keep costs down.
Once Riversimple has commenced manufacture, the design data will be released on an open source licence via the 40 Fires foundation that has been set up specifically to manage the open source licensing for designers and manufacturers.
Riversimple's urban car should not be looked at purely in terms of the vehicle design, but as an overall concept that includes the sale-of-service business model, open-source design, distributed human-scale manufacturing, corporate structure and hydrogen distribution.
