Swatch, the world’s biggest watch company, is looking at building a car that runs on hydrogen and oxygen.
Chief executive and chairman Nick Hayek told newspaper NZZ am Sonntag, in an interviewpublished on Sunday: “We already have a test-car with a fuel cell.
“Liquid hydrogen and oxygen are used as fuel, producing very efficient combustion,” he said, adding that the management board of Belenos - the Swatch subsidiary building the vehicle - has already driven around in the prototype, which has a 40kW electric motor and a 12kWh Lithium-ion battery powered by a 25kW hydrogen fuel-cell.
“What we don't know is whether it would be cost-efficient to build,” said Hayek, the son of Swatch's founder.
The fuel-cell vehicle is not Swatch's first attempt at building a green car. In 1997, it teamed up with Daimler-Benz to build the two-seater Smart but the watch firm later sold its shares to Daimler-Benz. - AFP