The start-up is demonstrating a hydrogen thermal engine with a kart… while waiting to think bigger.
The machine catches the eye. From a distance, it looks like a small Formula 1 car. Up close, it’s a kart like no other that the young Vision Technology team came to present at the Hydrogen Days in the Territories, this week in Dijon. Its first particularity is to run on hydrogen, the second is to do so with a thermal engine and not a fuel cell, like the vast majority of vehicles operating with this energy. The nuance is significant, not an electric motor, but a classic motor powered directly by this gas, the main advantage of which is that it does not release anything into the atmosphere, apart from water vapor.
The third particularity of this kart is its engine which is almost the same as that of a classic petrol kart. In detail, barely 15% of the parts were changed, in particular to address waterproofing issues. “ It is an engine that requires the same production lines as existing ones and which operates with the same type of maintenance », insists Florian Gravouil, CEO and founder of Vision Technology. The cost should be 15 to 20% higher if the processes are industrialized. For the moment, that of the prototype is kept secret by the young company. If the kart catches the eye, Florian Gravouil believes that other markets could open up driven by the possibilities offered by retrofit, for example, on forklifts.
And also biomethane
Vision Technoloy is also eyeing biomethane, also keen not to put all its eggs in the same basket, or in the same energy. “ We seek not only to convert thermal engines to biomethane, but also to improve their efficiency “, adds Florian Gravouil, aware that this is a long-term job. We are Deep Tech », he adds. A start-up positioned in a disruptive market, but requiring a long research and development phase. It is for this reason that she received the support of Bpifrance.
