The Gumpert Nathalie or RG Nathalie is a hydrogen-electric hybrid

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

running on

methanol Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the formula C H3 O H (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often abbreviated as MeOH). It is a ...

to generate hydrogen that is scheduled to enter production in 2021. It is the first car produced by the new car manufacturer RG founded by Roland Gumpert, following the bankruptcy of his company

Gumpert Gumpert is a surname and may refer to: * Ben Gumpert (born 1963), English barrister * Dave Gumpert (born 1958), American baseball player * Friedrich Gumpert (1841–1906), German horn player and teacher * Martin Gumpert (1897–1955), Jewish Germ ...

which produced the

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

. Production is planned to be limited to 500 cars.

History

Preamble

Roland Gumpert Roland Gumpert (born 10 December 1944) is a German engineer and founder of the sports car manufacturer Apollo Automobil. Gumpert is currently the managing director of the sports car manufacturer Gumpert Aiways Automobile, in which he also found ...

is a former president of Audi Sport. In 2001, he had founded the

automobile manufacturer The automotive industry comprises a wide range of company, companies and organizations involved in the design, Business development, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industry ...

Gumpert, to produce a supercar named Gumpert Apollo. In 2014, the company went bankrupt, and was taken over by

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

businessman Norman Choi and consortium Consolidated Ideal TeamVenture, the owner of

De Tomaso De Tomaso Automobili ltd. (previously known as De Tomaso Modena SpA) is an Italian car-manufacturing company. It was founded by the Argentine-born Alejandro de Tomaso (1928–2003) in Modena in 1959. It originally produced various prototypes an ...

, which renames it Apollo Automobil Gmbh and produces the

Apollo Intensa Emozione The Apollo Intensa Emozione, sometimes referred as the IE, is a mid-engine sports car manufactured by German automobile manufacturer Apollo Automobil GmbH, in partership with Manifattura Automobili Torino, designed by their chief designer Joe W ...

Presentation

In 2017, Roland Gumpert joined forces with Aiways, a Chinese company based in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

and specialist in alternative energies, and founded his new company called “RG”, initials of Roland Gumpert, based in

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2022). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Bav ...

in Germany. At Beijing Motor Show 2018, RG presents the prototype of its first model: the "Nathalie", named after the daughter of the founder. The RG Nathalie is to be produced at 500 copies from the end of 2019 in Germany, then in

Shangrao Shangrao () is a medium-sized prefecture-level city located in the northeast of Jiangxi province, People's Republic of China. The city borders the province of Anhui to the north, the province of Zhejiang to the east, and the province of Fujian to t ...

in China and sold at a price of 420000

Euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s. At the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, Gumpert presents the RG Nathalie in its series version, produced from 2021, with its electric motor powered by a fuel cell.

Features

The Nathalie is a two-seater coupe, its line is close to the

Nissan GT-R The Nissan GT-R (Japanese: 日産・GT-R, ''Nissan GT-R''), is a high-performance sports car and grand tourer produced by Nissan, unveiled in 2007. It is the successor to the Skyline GT-R, a high performance variant of the Nissan Skyline. Alth ...

. It receives headlights with

LEDs A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...

at the front, removable shutters and a light strip joining the rear lights. It is designed on a very light carbon shell which gives it high performance with a maximum speed of and a 0 to in 2.5 seconds. The Nathalie receives four electric motors of , each placed in the wheels. They develop a combined power of transmitted on all four wheels. The Nathalie is equipped with a fuel cell which operates on

and supplies a battery. The complex system developed by RG consists of a

methanol reformer A methanol reformer is a device used in chemical engineering, especially in the area of fuel cell technology, which can produce pure hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide by reacting a methanol and water (steam) mixture. :\mathrm \Delta H_^0 = 49.2\ \ ...

which, by a

catalyzed Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...

chemical reaction, divides methanol into carbon dioxide and hydrogen, the latter feeding the fuel cell which produces electricity. The fuel cell system type is indicated by the fuel cell producer as

Reformed methanol fuel cell Reformed Methanol Fuel Cell (RMFC) or Indirect Methanol Fuel Cell (IMFC) systems are a subcategory of proton exchange membrane fuel cell, proton-exchange fuel cells where, the fuel, methanol (CH3OH), is reformed, before being fed into the fuel cel ...

. It also increases its autonomy thanks to the recovery of energy produced during braking. It benefits from a 60-liter tank of methanol and thus a range of to in "eco" mode. If renewable methanol (e.g. made of municipal waste or

renewable electricity Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

) is used, a carbon-neutral operation is possible.

References

External links