A couple of years ago I wrote about the Morgan LifeCar on the hydrogen racecars page and now in March 2008 the vehicle will actually be coming to life. The Morgan LifeCar will make its public debut at the Geneva Auto Show and will feature an all-aluminum body and zero emissions.
The British automaker, who still hand-builds cars and uses wooden frames, has developed the LifeCar in conjunction with Oxford University, Cranfield University, Linde AG, the Open Source Car Project (OSCar) and QinetiQ. In fact, QinetiQ, a British defense contractor has built the fuel cell for the 1930’s style LifeCar.
What is remarkable is that such a small car manufacturer such as Morgan has been able to build a hydrogen car. Morgan has only a little over 150 employees and sold only 650 cars last year, including the Aero 8 on which the LifeCar is based. Compare this with GM and DaimlerChrysler, with deep pockets and vast resources, who have spent tens of millions of dollars to develop their hydrogen cars.
Besides being powered by fuel cell, the Morgan LifeCar will also use ultracapacitors for additional pop in its acceleration. According to Morgan, the LifeCar hybrid will also have a range of around 200 miles.
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