Describe the critical need your solution addresses.

‘The car’ has increased mobility. It drives economic growth and social development. However, the current automotive system, of production, purchase, use and disposal, rewards resource use and creates significant stress on global climate. We need a new system that provides the benefits to society within the constraints of the environment.

Explain your initiative in more depth and its stage of development.

In June 2009, Riversimple launched its technology demonstrator (Image 1), a hydrogen powered, network electric, two-seat urban car. Whole System Design has resulted in a well-to-wheel carbon emission of 30g/km using hydrogen from natural gas, or 3g/km if hydrogen is produced renewably. It has a composite body, fuel cell and four electric motors (Image 2). Commercial production is scheduled for 2013.

Riversimple does not believe that technology alone can address the issues, and the principal barriers are due to people, politics and business. Whole System Design has been used to develop a business model, to succeed within the existing framework, yet aligned with the planet’s cyclical systems:
• Cars will be leased, not sold, to reward longevity rather than obsolescence
• All stakeholders are equal partners, rather than just the founder and investors
• Vehicle designs will be published online allowing anyone to collaborate in the design process and build cars under an open source license
• The new technology encourages distributed manufacturing in small plants, enabling the vehicle to be tailored to the local environment.

Riversimple is committed to sustainable mobility and is uncompromising in its belief that ‘less bad is no good’ – being less unsustainable is not sustainable.

How does your strategy and approach respond creatively and comprehensively to key issues?

Our strategy systematically addresses four key issues:

1. Technical Barriers
The key barriers to the adoption of hydrogen have been the cost of fuel cells and hydrogen storage density sufficient to achieve an adequate range. Instead of focusing on these issues in isolation, Riversimple has taken an integrated approach, redesigning the car as a whole. In doing so, we have reduced the power demanded of the fuel cell and thus its cost. We use less hydrogen, eliminating the storage problem.

2. Energy Infrastructure
A motorway capable car needs a national refuelling infrastructure, whereas an urban car remains tethered to the city in which it is based. With a 240 mile range, we can launch cars in small cities with one re-fuelling point in that city. By implementing a turnkey package of cars and re-fuelling infrastructure in multiple cities, we will help build a nationwide infrastructure incrementally – without taking a nationwide gamble.

3. Requirement of backing from established manufacturers
There is a contention that collaboration with a major auto manufacturer is required to achieve meaningful impact. To address this we have set up an open source design foundation (www.40Fires.org) through which we will develop our technology. This will actively encourage collaboration, stimulate entrepreneurs to take up our designs and build a groundswell of stakeholder support for our design standards to become ubiquitous.

4. Resource consumption
We need to wring the maximum utility out of every unit of resource, but the sale of product rewards the opposite, the maximisation of resource consumption; if you sell cars, you make more money from selling more cars. The sale of service reverses this financial driver, rewarding minimisation of resource consumption. There is even a direct financial incentive to continuously reduce fuel consumption as our service contract covers the cost of fuel.