Morgan Motor Co. pulled the wraps off its hydrogen-powered LifeCar concept we told you about a few weeks ago, and it's every bit as slow as it is gorgeous.
We couldn't make it to the Geneva Motor Show for the unveiling, but our friends at Jalopnik did and snapped a bunch of pictures. Ben Wojdyla describes the all-aluminum roadster as "strangely delicate" and says the aluminum and wood interior "while beautiful" is "brutal in its cleanliness."
Morgan says the point of the LifeCar is to show "a zero-emission vehicle can be fun to drive." Fun, yes. But does it have to be slow? The LifeCar uses a four-stack polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell generating 22 kilowatts of power. That's 29.5 horsepower.
"With that, we can provide all of the cruise capability we need to," Morgan's Matthew Parkin told BBC News.
Morgan says the LifeCar will do 0 to 60 "in about 7 seconds" and top out at 90 mph. Both figures are estimates because Morgan hasn't taken the LifeCar for a proper test drive. "It's nearly there and the plan is to drive it when the show is over," Parkin said.
Morgan says the fuel cell, manufactured by British defense firm QinetiQ, operates at 45 percent efficiency and is sized to meet the constant load requirement incurred while cruising (about 20 percent of peak power, according to Morgan). The power drives four motors, each of which is connected directly to a wheel. Morgan claims the motors are "super-efficient - 92-94 percent across their operating range" and use regenerative braking to recapture 50 percent of the energy used in slowing the car. Energy is stored in a bank of ultra capacitors.
Morgan says the car has a range of 250 miles and maximizing efficiency was the highest priority. Morgan pared the weight to about 1,500 pounds by using aluminum. The wood interior is Spartan - two seats, a steering wheel, a gauge and a starter button - without any of the luxuries found in conventional cars. There aren't even air bags.
The LifeCar is concept that cost 1.9 million British pounds (about $3.7 million) to build and was financed in part by the government, but Morgan isn't ruling out the possibility of a production model at some point down the line.
"We will gauge reaction when we show it," Parkin said. "If there is an enormous response, we will have to look at the project, the pricing and how it will function."
And, presumably, how people will get the hydrogen needed to fuel it.
Be sure to check out all the pictures Jalopnik has posted here.
