Startup drives water-fuelled electric car

A tech startup based in Australia and Israel is set to launch a fuel that uses water to power electric vehicles.

Electriq-Global has developed a technology that extracts hydrogen from water-based fuel and uses it to create electricity to power green vehicles.

The company claims the zero-emission fuel offers twice the range of existing fuels, in additional to being available at half the price.

The system begins with the base of liquid fuel, which reacts with a catalyst to release hydrogen on demand, before the spent fuel is recaptured and taken to a plant where it is replenished with hydrogen and water to be re-used.

Development of the system paves the way for technologies which may enable water-fuelled cars in the future.

Announcing the launch of ‘Electriq-Fuel’ at the Smart Mobility Summit in Tel Aviv, Electriq-Global claimed the liquid fuel is safe and stable at ambient temperatures and pressures.

The company claims the energy density of the fuel is up to 15 times that of electric batteries currently used in electric vehicles such as market leader Tesla.

A comparison of electric buses showed the buses powered by batteries provided a range of 250 km and required up to 300 minutes to recharge, whereas buses to be powered by Electriq-Fuel will provide a range of 1,000 km and could be refueled in five minutes.

Guy N. Michrowski, chief executive of Electriq- Global, said: "Our technology brings dramatic news of improvement in driving range, refueling time, and cost of fuel and changes the rules of the game in many fields, including transportation and energy storage.”

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