Following on from the rapturous response that LIFECar received, Morgan Motor Company has decided to take LIFECar from a prototype, to a fully fledged production vehicle. There have been some changes to the original brief, making the car more practical, while retaining the revolutionary features that made LIFECar unique.

In the place of the original hydrogen fuel cell is a super-efficient, series hybrid drivetrain, developed using some of the countries best universities, making use of the wealth of knowledge in their research departments. The drivetrain will power a vehicle that epitomises Morgan core value of innovation. The use of sustainable lightweight materials will ensure that not only is the vehicle fuel efficient with a low carbon output, but that at the end of its very long life, it will be easily recyclable.

Some key figures for the LIFECar are:

• 1000 mile range
• Ultra lightweight (sub 800kg)
• 15 mile EV range
• 0-60mph in 7 seconds
• ~£40,000 Price

Universities involved with LIFECar2 are:

• Birmingham City University
• Oxford University
• Cranfield University

More information on this exciting project as soon as we receive it! in the interim, Talk Morgan has detailed photographs of the interior and exterior of the LIFECar in the member’s section.

Morgan Motor Company have shown the Aeromax and LIFECar at the Concorso d’Eleganaza Villa d’Este 2008 to an excellent reception.  Both cars were enthusiastically received by judges, journalists and visitors. If you would like to see larger versions of the pictures you can click on the link to Talk Morgan.

Geneva 2008

This post contains photographs from the Morgan Motor Company stand at the Geneva Auto Show 2008. Vehicles on show at the 78th International Auto Salon were: the Morgan Aeromax (which is part of a limited production run of only 100 cars), the hydrogen fueled Morgan LIFECar, the new for 2008 Morgan 4/4 Sport 1.6, the Morgan Aero 8 4.8 automatic, V6 Roadster and Plus 4 Seater from the Classic range.

Discussion and photos on the MMC stand at Geneva can be found at Talk Morgan.

The LIFECar is powered by a fuel cell that is sized to meet the constant load requirement of cruising (about 20% of peakpower) and as a result significant weight and cost reductions have been made over other designs. By recapturing energy during braking, maximum performance is available to LIFECar for acceleration from this unique mix of technologies.The initial concept was the brainchild of Hugo Spowers of RiverSimple, a specialist company investigating new ideas in environmentally sound transport solutions. In order to realise LIFECar however, several partners were needed to make the concept a reality.

The project is based around hydrogen as the fuel source because when it burns the only emission is pure water. Hydrogen is potentially abundant and Spowers brought in Linde to the project for their expertise across the whole hydrogen supply chain from production and distribution through to their high pressure refuelling systems.

The hydrogen is converted to electricity using a 4 stack hydrogen PEM fuel cell. Apart from 22Kw of electricity, the fuel cell produces only heat and water as by-products. The fuel cell made by QinetiQ operates at 45% efficiency, a significant advance over the conventional internal combustion engine.

Electricity is directed to 4 electric motor/generators, each connected directly to a driving wheel. Not only are these motors super-efficient – 92-94% across their operating range – but they have inbuilt re-generative braking, recapturing the kinetic energy for when vivid acceleration is required (and reducing energy consumption still further). Whilst regenerative braking is not a new concept, current applications offer around 10% energy reuse, whereas in LIFECar, up to 50% of this stored kinetic energy can be re-employed.

This regained energy needs to be efficiently stored and delivered. Historically this has been the job of batteries, which are rich in heavy metals, heavy in weight and limited in their ability to deliver or receive high power bursts of energy. LIFECar has shunned these in favour of a bank of ultra capacitors. These have the ability to shuffle up to 1000 amps back and forth, maximising energy storage during braking and delivering powerful acceleration.

This technology would not be practical without sophisticated controls. Cranfield University have developed management systems for the vehicle, hydrogen, fuel cell, ultracapacitors and the motors allowing them to become the drive and braking system (powerful enough to give 0.7g retardation as well as generating energy). They have also developed a solution to seamlessly switch the electronic brakes to a conventional hydraulic system at very low speeds.

LIFECar has been engineered to deliver energy consumption equivalent to 150 mpg (1.8 l/100km) on petrol with a top speed potential of 80-85 mph, a 0-62 time of under 7 seconds and a 250 mile range. This unique mix of technology has been packaged by Morgan to add yet another unique twist to the project. Using only the best and lightest materials that are also attractive from an environmental and an aesthetic point of view, aluminium, wood and leather, the Morgan DNA is clearly visible and gives a new dimension to an environmentally sensitive concept.

One thing is for certain, the world of motoring will change out of all recognition over the next 10 years…Could this be its future?

More information, photographs and images can be found at Talk Morgan.