Viritech Plans To Launch The 1100bhp Hydrogen Hypercar Apricale In 2023

The engineering firm Viritech is currently working on a development program called Apricale aimed to become a hydrogen hypercar with a 1100bhp output. The building process of the project takes place at the Warwickshire MIRA Technology Park. 

Apricale will be a limited units hypercar at the £1.5 million prices (taxes not included) and has the goal to show off the company's hydrogen fuel cell technology, aimed for use in FCEV passenger cars, heavy goods vehicles, aircraft, and boats. 

“You run into two issues when you go down the battery route. One is the ‘mass compounding element’ - the more energy storage you need, the heavier the car gets. The second is the continued use of large amounts of raw materials in building very large battery packs, which are potentially recyclable, but even today we’re struggling to get lithium back out in a way it can be used again,” says Viritech co-founder Matt Faulks.

Viritech already filed a patent for this technology and is targeting the commercial vehicle segment primarily, given the long-distance viability of an FCEV powertrain. Viritech wants to create a hypercar with a 500 miles range. 

The concept is a flexible one. and what better proof than the Tellaro SUV to prove it? What a clever show-off for the lightweight FCEV technology applied to passenger cars. Tellaro has the same front motor as the new Apricale plus the hypercar's powertrain flagship elements. A development program at MIRA allows Viritech to reach the best results of its expansive testing units on site. Faulks even stated that “the resources that they provide, and the ability to sub out test and engineering services as required.” 

The Apricale prototype should be ready for testing by 2022 and has its launch scheduled in 2023. before beginning dynamic testing at MIRA with the first Apricale prototype in 2022, and launching series production in 2023.