Wow!!! A Car that Runs Solely on Water.

TOKYO: Tired of petrol prices rising daily at the pump? A Japanese company has invented an electric-powered, and environmentally-friendly car that it says runs solely on water.

Genepax said that a litre of any kind of water – rain, river or sea – is all you will need to get the engine going for about an hour at a speed of 80 km.

“The car will continue to run as long as you have a bottle of water to top up from time to time,” Genepax CEO Kiyoshi Hirasawa said. “It does not require you to build up an infrastructure to recharge your batteries, which is usually the case for most electric cars,” he added.

Once the water is poured into the tank at the back of the car, a generator breaks it down and uses it to create electrical power.

The company said that a proprietary unit splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen using a chemical reaction, which provides fuel for a hydrogen fuel cell to run the car.

It also insists that the new process produces hydrogen from water for a longer time than the existing method.

Genepax informed that power is generated by its Water Energy System (WES) by supplying water and air to the fuel and air electrodes, the system being similar to that of a standard fuel cell.

Its fuel cell system – the company added – has an output of 300W. Genepax has mounted this system in the luggage room of a compact electric vehicle ‘Reva’, manufactured by Takeoka Mini Car Products Co Ltd.

Now, Genepax is planning to provide 1kw-class generation systems for use in electric vehicles and for residential applications.

While the current production cost is about $18,522 (Rs 8 lakh approx), it is estimated to be reduced to $5,000 and even lower if the company succeeds in mass production. ANI