Morganis building the LifeCar to demonstrate, "that a zero emission vehicle can also be fun to drive." The tiny English car maker - better known for wood framed roadsters - is trying to do what no car maker has done before it: bring to market a fast, fun, desirable sports car that makes no sacrifices for its hydrogen fuel cell.

Built on the same basic architecture as the Aero8, the LifeCar is given a more futuristic art-deco look as well as a significant reduction in weight. By combining that low weight with high levels of hybridization, Morgan predict the LifeCar will have performance to match a sports car while achieving a 200-mile fuel range.
Charles Morgan, the company's Strategy Director, told CarBodyDesign, "The real challenge is to design and build a car that is fun to drive - a proper sports car. The use of ultra capacitors to store the surplus energy and then use this for acceleration and braking does promise a dynamic ride, especially when combined with our ultra light chassis. The pairing of weight to a minimum is our strength, and allows a much smaller fuel cell than conventionally thought necessary. This gives energy and yet more weight savings."

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That looks weird but at the same time looks like the streamlined cars from pre WWII era.

Morgan LIFECar Gets Close to Official Unveiling

About a year ago, Morgan announced it would unveil a vehicle called LIFECar in this year’s edition of the Geneva Motor Show. At that time, only a few images of the car had been released, but, as the car gets closer to its official presentation, more images of the vehicle have emerged. And, if this is what Morgan thinks the future will be, we all should be glad about it.

The British automaker’s intention of building a fuel cell vehicle seems to fit just nicely. Morgan’s skill in creating lightweight cars combines pretty well with fuel efficient automobiles. And there is nothing more fuel efficient than fuel cells, although they are still too expensive for mass production.

Anyway, LIFECar is not solely a Morgan product, but the effort of many other entities, such as BOC, responsible for developing the hydrogen refueling plant, Cranfield University, the systems simulation, onboard computing and control networks “manager”, so to speak, Oxford University, in charge of the regenerative electric motors, OSCar, which takes care of the design and architecture of the car and last, but not least (on the contrary), QinetiQ, the creator of LIFECar’s fuel cells. The creation of the concept has consumed two and a half years and almost £1.9 million.

Considering the praised dynamic behavior of all Morgan vehicles, it would be no surprise if, although quiet and clean, the LIFECar was as good to drive as the best combustion-engined vehicles. Going a little further, it would also be no surprise if the car made into production, since Morgan, although very successful, is a small automaker. If customers decide to buy it, Morgan would surely not refuse to sell it.
Press Release

06/03/2007 Geneva 2007 – LIFECar

LIFEcar- an efficient fuel cell sports car

The green car that will deliver on performance and looks as well as emission reduction

Now less than 12 months from reality, the British consortium involved in the project, which includes the legendary sports car manufacturer Morgan, QinetiQ, Cranfield and Oxford universities, BOC and OSCar, is on target to unveil the completed and running prototype at the 2008 Geneva show.

The new vehicle, known as LIFECar will be ultra quiet, and its exhaust system will produce only water vapour thanks to its fuel cell converting hydrogen into electricity.

“The real challenge is to design and build a car that is fun to drive – a proper sports car” quoted Charles Morgan, the strategy director for the Morgan Motor Company. “The use of ultra capacitors to store the surplus energy and then use this for acceleration and braking does promise a dynamic ride, especially when combined with our ultra light chassis. The pairing of weight to a minimum is our strength, and allows a much smaller fuel cell than conventionally thought necessary. This gives energy and yet more weight savings”

Part funded by the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), LIFECar has been a 2 ½ year project. The consortium hopes that the LIFECar will produce a combination of performance, range and fuel economy that should alter our view of motoring for the future.

The key to delivering this step change in energy efficiency lies in a combination of factors, including weight reduction and a different design approach. Costing a total of £1.9m, with a mix of industry and DTI funding, the two and a half year project has been broken down into the following areas of responsibility.

BOC Developing the hydrogen refuelling plant
Cranfield University Systems simulation , on-board computing and control networks
Oxford University Design and control of re-generative electric motors
QinetiQ Developing the proton exchange membrane fuel cell
Morgan Motor Company Building the finalised design using light weight technology
OSCar Overall system design and architecture

Technical background

The car's fuel cell system operates by electrochemically combining on-board hydrogen with oxygen taken from the air outside.

Although in most respects fuel cells are more like engines than batteries, to the extent that they generate energy from fuel in a tank rather than store energy, like batteries, they use electrodes (solid electrical conductors) with an electrolyte (an electrically conductive medium). When the hydrogen molecules come into contact with the negative electrodes, the molecules split into protons and electrons.

The protons are then carried across the proton exchange membrane to the positive electrode of the fuel cell whilst the electrons travel around the external circuit as electricity. The molecules of the hydrogen and oxygen are combined chemically, with water as the only waste product.

The only emission from the QinetiQ fuel cell will be water vapour. The electric power generated by the fuel cells powers the electric motors and turns the wheels of the vehicle.




http://www.worldcarfans.com/9080214.003/morgan-lifecar-gets-close-to-official-unveiling