Investors offered stake in the world’s only independent hydrogen fuel cell company
News
5 Apr 2016
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle manufacturer Riversimple has launched a crowdfunding scheme to match a €2 million EU grant and investment from Innovate UK and the Office for Low Emission Vehicles) OLEV, offering people the opportunity to invest.
The news comes after Riversimple launched ‘Rasa’, which runs on hydrogen fuel and produces no tailpipe emissions. Investors will gain part of the Welsh company, but not the car itself. Customers will pay a fixed monthly fee for the hydrogen car, similar to the cost of ownership of a new family-sized hatchback.
Hugo Spowers, Riversimple founder, said: “Customers will be able to drive a technologically- sophisticated, zero emission car with none of the burdens of conventional car ownership. The ‘sale of service’ offering is integral to our circular business model – which uses the inbuilt longevity of the cars to economic advantage. Carmakers typically only capture around 40 per cent of the lifetime revenues from a car, so this business model makes a lot of sense.
Spowers added: “Riversimple is manifestly a ‘for profit’ business, in which delivering social and environmental return enhances profit rather than competing with it.”
The car is expected on the market from late 2018.
