Renault's new hydrogen car is still a concept and not much is known about its specifications, but the company's CEO says he enjoys turning concepts into reality.

This Friday (18), Renault published for the first time, on its official YouTube channel, its hydrogen-powered car, through a teaser. The model does not yet have a name and is in the concept stage. The announcement of the hydrogen car shows progress by the automaker in its plan outlined at the beginning of last year, known as Renaulution, and which focuses on the transition to electric cars or other types of clean energy source. Responsible for the design of the hydrogen-powered car is Renault's world director of design, Gilles Vidal.

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Learn more about Renault's hydrogen-powered car

According to Luca de Meo, CEO of Renault, the model will also feature a fully electric version, in addition to the hydrogen version. For the teaser released by the company, the model resembles the battery-powered Megane, mainly due to the shape of the outlined hood and the shape of the headlights.

The hydrogen car appears to be an SUV, with cameras in the rearview mirrors replacing the mirrors and with a front end reminiscent of the new Renault 5 subcompacts. The CEO also emphasized that the hydrogen-powered car is much more than a design study. De Meo says that when Renault develops a concept, it plans to bring the models to real life.

Until then, the automaker had never commented on the use of hydrogen as fuel. Incidentally, the company also did not mention how the car's hydrogen engine will work, whether with internal combustion or fuel cell. As the statement does not mention hydrogen cells, some interpreted it as an internal combustion engine that uses hydrogen, an idea that is basically used only by Japanese automakers.

Yamaha and Toyota are making a hydrogen-powered V8 engine

As examples of Japanese automakers that are adhering to sustainable fuel, are Toyota and Yamaha. They recently announced that they plan to produce a V8 internal combustion engine that will run on hydrogen.

According to Yamaha, such engine will be able to offer a power of 449 horsepower. Generally speaking, it is possible to say that the hydrogen internal combustion engine will make the vehicle work almost in the same way as one powered by gasoline or ethanol. And the hydrogen car can bring something that can be very important for fans of conventional cars: the roar of the engine, which is lost when the model is fully electric.

How does a hydrogen powered car work?

In the hydrogen car engine, the burned fuel explodes, moving the heads, just like in gasoline cars, but, instead of polluting the environment with CO2, it just eliminates water vapor through the exhaust.

In engines with fuel cells, what happens is a chemical reaction in the cell made with hydrogen, also emitting water vapour, however generating electricity instead of the explosion. This powers an electric motor. Despite not making any noise, it is also fueled at a gas station and not at an outlet.