A new hybrid car that uses technology designed to harness wave energy has been developed.
Engineers from Artemis Intelligent Power, a company formed by Edinburgh University researchers, have converted a BMW 530i saloon car to use their green-power system that uses 50 percent less petrol or diesel during city driving.
The car runs on a mixture of stored energy and petrol - with computer technology switching between the two.
The company has unveiled its retrofit of a BMW 5-series saloon which it claims, using its Digital Displacement technology, can double its miles per gallon of fuel - and all without any heavy batteries.
Digital Displacement is a purely hydraulic system that sits between a car’s engine and wheels. The system was originally developed to convert the irregular movements of waves into a steady stream of energy. A hydraulic drive allows energy usually wasted during braking to be stored and used again when the car needs to accelerate.
The project was supported by the Department for Transport and the Energy Saving Trust.
Artemis’s 50-strong workforce began converting the petrol BMW320i in 2006.
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