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Riversimple - Rasa Beta Price: POA
Last Updated On: 16/07/2023
The Riversimple Rasa is a highly innovative, lightweight, two-seater electric car, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, which has been in 15 years of development. The engineering prototype clocked over 60mph and has weaved neatly through the traffic in London, as well as gliding down the country lanes of Powys. The production prototype should do around 250 mpg (equivalent), with a range of 300 miles.
The Rasa is an electric car powered by hydrogen rather than batteries and emits water. The hydrogen passes through a fuel cell (image 4), where it combines with oxygen from the air to produce electricity. This electricity flows to small, lightweight electric motors, one in each wheel, which give the car 4 wheel drive.
The Rasa is one of the most aerodynamic cars on the road with a drag coefficient of just 0.248. For reference, a Porsche 911 has a drag coefficient of over 0.31.
The chassis is a carbon fibre monocoque made from very lightweight but extremely stiff carbon fibre composites. The monocoque chassis weighs less than 40kg. Every aspect of the Rasa has been created and interrogated for simplicity, efficiency, lightness, strength, affordability, safety and sustainability. The whole car weighs just 580kg.
Apart from the revolutionary exterior design of the car, with dihedral doors, it's technical specification is extraordinary:
- Four electric motors, one in each wheel
- Motors as brakes – recovering over 50% of kinetic energy when braking
- Super-capacitors to store this energy and provide most of the power for acceleration
- A low powered hydrogen fuel cell (12 kw)
- A body made of lightweight composites
The latest production version, the Rasa Beta was unveiled in 2019 ahead of Riversimple's Abergavenny public trials that started in 2020. Refinements to the engineering prototype were incorporated into every aspect of the Beta cars, including safety-critical software, component packaging, air intake and energy management systems. The Beta cars also used a slightly larger 12kw fuel cell in addition to a bigger set of supercapacitors.
Riversimple don't actually sell these cars but they offer a subscription to the Riversimple service which gives customers a car and covers all motoring costs – tax, insurance, fuel and more. There is currently a waiting list.
