Company Unveils Hydrogen Hybrid Supercar: Available Fall 2008
Well, here it is folks. A company has finally gone and built the controversial hydrogen hybrid system (or hydrogen injection, or Water4Gas or HHO system – choose your poison) into what appears to be a true production car. Not only that, the car looks, well, stunning… to put it mildly.
Ronn Motors of Austin, Texas, yesterday unveiled what they’re calling “the key to a new generation of “green cars.” The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Ronn Maxwell, had this to say about it:
“What we are revealing today is an innovation in the automotive industry and demonstrates American ingenuity at a time of real need. We’re designing and building cars with performance components and unique styling with the objective of making the new environmentally friendly vehicle stand out with never before seen style and approximately 40 mpg plus efficiency.”
I recently featured this type of hydrogen-on-demand hybrid system in a Gas 2.0 post about potential fuel saving scam devices. At the end of that post I had to say that the jury was still out on these types of systems. There was plenty of back and forth from folks who felt that hydrogen hybrids were scams and those that claimed they had installed the devices and they actually worked.
If Ronn Motors has truly built it into a production supercar, and it works, that would kind of put the kibosh on any naysayers out there now, wouldn’t it? Not only would the development and production of this car validate the functionality of hydrogen hybrids, it also could spur a broader public interest and recognition of the technology.
As of right now, it’s only a test car and some of the quotes from Ronn executives suggest they haven’t actually installed a hydrogen generator into the vehicle yet. But as the Hydrogen Cars & Vehicles blog puts it: “Move over Bugatti, Lamborghini and Saleen, the Ronn Motors Scorpion is a supercar that will scoot 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds and achieve 40 mpg, too.” I mean, if it’s true, this appears to be an awesome development.
Gas 2.0 Posts Related to Hydrogen and Car Technology:
- Save Gas Without Losing Your Shirt: 3 Gas Saving Devices with High Scam Potential
- Safe Hydrogen Fuel System Ready for Market and Your Car!
- Provoq Concept Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Vehicle
- An Electric Car With Muscle: The 175 MPGe X1 Prototype by Wrightspeed Inc.
Image credit: Ronn Motors
Thank you. Not a chance
I wondered when somebody would do this.
@Mitch I think the point of saying it was a perpetual motion machine was that if it was taking only water in and putting pure water out why couldn’t you just put the output back in and run forever, hence perpetual motion. Obviously there is a lot more involved in true perpetual motion but I think that is what he was getting at.
I am inquisitive about this as there are some ramifications if this is true. I mean there are already some smalltime folks testing with something similar and hey if you could add a 5 gallon water tank to your car and some “other stuff” and get 10 to 15 more MPG wouldn’t you do it?
Unfortunately once again the technology will come to market at a price point that is out of reach of most of the population.
if this thing is powered by hydrogen shuldn’t we be getting, like, 100000 miles per gallon of H2O?
@ raredirt
Thank you, that was basically my point about perpetual motion. Running an engine from pure water where you can continually refill it with the exhaust would conflict with the basic laws of thermodynamics. However, I think that a system like a hydrogen hybrid where only portion of the fuel is split from water could increase the overall efficiency of an engine that otherwise is an incredibly inefficient beast (something like less than 50% of the energy in the gas is used in combustion in a modern engine - I may be wrong on that one). Hydrogen hybrids have potential, but I surely don’t have the physics background to make a thorough evaluation of it, so I’ll wait and see if the Scorpion becomes reality. I can tell you though that this is a very controversial subject.
It’s powered by water-”Vapor-ware”!
FTS: “..deposits will be kept in a third party escrow account..”
That sounds so much like the car scams on Craigslist. Or may be I am too cynical.
[...] While BMW has hydrogen burning car, there are no plans for mass production. On the other hand, this company is ready to debut in the fall of 2008. [...]
if this car is over 40g’s then don’t even think of selling it.
Ok RONN and company forget it.I was with you until i heard 40 miles per gallon. have you ever heared of Toyota Prius which gets 45 to 48 MPG at a 21,000 dollar cost with extremely low costs: and you want to sell soemthing with less milage and probly cost 100 grand>? get real.
We are looking for somethjing which does not need a gas pump AT ALL> GET IT> IT”S OUT THERE EITHER GET YOUR BUTT IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION OR GET OFF THE RACE TRACK.
hEY A HINT.. I CAN WITH A QUART OF WATER PICK UP ANOTHER 5 TO 8 MPG WITH MY TOYOTA COROLLA USING A SIMPLE UNDER 50$ SETUP. GOOD GREIF WHAT RU THINKING? WHO AR EYOU TRYING TO IMPRESS?