Niche supercars from boutique start-ups always sell well, don’t they? That’s why every other car you see on the road is a Jensen S-V8 or a Connaught Type D Syracuse or a Ronart Lightning. So you’re bound to be seeing this new Hyperion XP-1 everywhere in the future, right…?
Er, cynicism aside though, it’s an interesting idea. The concept is to build an eco-friendly hypercar, and instead of harnessing the leaps and bounds made in electric power that everyone else is trying, this is powered by hydrogen.
Putting their fingers in their ears and ignoring the fact that major manufacturers like BMW and Honda have been trying and largely failing to make hydrogen cars viable for decades, the XP-1’s engineers have created something that will apparently do 0-62mph in 2.2-seconds, top out at 220mph, get over 1,000 miles from a tank of fuel, and only take a few minutes to fill up.
And the only exhaust emission is lovely clean water vapour. Sounds too good to be true, right? It’s also got aero blades that double as solar panels, a 98-inch curved dash screen, and a titanium/carbon fibre chassis.
The company that developed it supplies parts to NASA. So it sounds like it can’t fail, doesn’t it? But again, think about the last time you saw an Arash Farboud, or a Mastretta MXT, or a Marcos TSO, or… well, you get the idea.
