Pininfarina is toiling away on its own range of electric vehicles, but the company's design arm is still exploring vehicles with alternative powertrains. On Monday, the company revealed the Pininfarina Enigma GT concept, a striking coupe packing a V-6 designed to run on pure hydrogen.
The turbocharged 2.5-liter V-6 generates 435 hp when burning hydrogen, and is used to power the concept's rear wheels only. An electric motor rated at more than 200 hp powers the front wheels, ensuring the vehicle has all-wheel-drive traction.
By positioning the engine at the rear, Pininfarina was able to lower the front of the vehicle in a quest to improve aerodynamic efficiency. There are numerous other aerodynamic tweaks, some of which are active, like the grille shutters, front wheel deflectors, and rear wing. The result is a relatively low drag coefficient of 0.24.
The weight of the vehicle is approximately 3,725 pounds, which isn't bad considering there's space for four. Finding space to store luggage might be a big difficult, though.
Pininfarina Enigma GT concept
Pininfarina said it plans to reveal more details on the Enigma GT at a later date.
Hydrogen is typically thought as a fuel for fuel cell vehicles, but it can also power cars with conventional internal-combustion engines after some minor modifications are made. There are drawbacks, though. Besides the lack of a steady supply of hydrogen as an available fuel source, burning hydrogen in an engine emits harmful nitrogen oxides.
However, there are ways to minimize these emissions, such as using urea-based selective catalytic reduction found in diesel engines. It may also be possible to produce hydrogen at scale without emissions by using renewable energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, something that Porsche is examining in its development of synthetic fuels.
