A lot of creative and innovative ideas have been thrown around to create an environmentally sustainable solution to personal transportation that does not negatively impact mobility or quality of life. Perhaps the most outside-the-box concept of all is using an open source platform to build micro-compact hydrogen vehicles.

This is the approach being taken by British start-up Riversimple. Instead of fighting the status quo, Riverimple hopes to make it obsolete by creating a new paradigm in the auto industry.

The Riversimple car itself is a light-weight (only 770 pounds), carbon composite, hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. It’s a small two-seater  designed for urban use, comparable in size to the Smart for two. The fuel cell itself will be 6 kilowatts, compared to the 100 kilowatt fuel cell of the Honda Clarity. While the first Riversimple model will only reach 50 mph, it will be able to travel over 200 miles on one tank of hydrogen and get fuel economy equivalent to 300 mpg.

In order to encourage valuable input and build the best possible product, Riversimple has embarrassed an open-source platform. This means that anyone can see the vehicle’s design and add to it/ change it/ improve it. Open source has been successful in developing software, and extending it into car design offers some advantages: brilliant minds can come together to improve upon one another’s designs and ultimately design a more perfect product.

The process is slightly different for hardware than for software, however, since the lag between designing and building, plus testing make planning more complex. Check out 40 Fires for more information on the open source design of Riversimple’s hydrogen vehicle.

Riversimple plans to lease vehicles for a period of 20 years, with fuel (hydrogen) included in the lease price. This arrangement is intended to align the incentives of all involved parties: the manufacturer, owner, and society at large all want efficient, sturdy vehicles with long lifespans. When a manufacturer sells you a vehicle, their incentives are to get you to buy another vehicle as soon as possible.

Riversimple also claims that the economies of scale with composite frames differ in nature from those of steel frame vehicles. This may allow Riversimple to produce 5,000-10,000 vehicles per year at one factory, adapting the design to local needs.

This is the sort of idea that’s wacky enough to never take off outside of a small, passionate community,  but it also just might be wacky enough to work out and turn the auto industry on its head. It will be very interesting to follow the progress of this project.