A NEW KIND OF BUSINESS – DESIGNED FROM SCRATCH TO DELIVER OUR PURPOSE

The more successful we are as a business, the more we eliminate environmental damage.

We don’t believe that there’s any trade off between a successful, resilient, enduringly profitable business and delivering our aim of eliminating environmental impact. Which is why we have designed our business, from scratch, through a “whole system” approach.

We think this business design could and should be applied in all the categories that underpin human life. We’d love others to copy it.

A BUSINESS MODEL DESIGNED FOR OUR PURPOSE

We’re not selling products. We’ll retain ownership and sell mobility as a service. That way customers don’t have the hassle of ownership, and it is in our interests to make a car that lasts as long as possible. Our interests, the customer’s and the planet’s are aligned.

We’ve created a simple pricing structure that enables customers to pay a single monthly fee that covers everything – the car, the maintenance, the insurance, the fuel. Nothing hidden. No small print.

Aligning interests like this applies equally to our supply chain. We’re doing all we can to adopt the “sale of service” model upstream with our suppliers, so that their interests are also aligned with ours, the customer’s and the planet’s.

We’re building a distributed manufacturing model. We don’t need massive factories to achieve our goals; instead we’ll build small, profitable operations near the markets they serve – each will produce around 5,000 cars a year.

And we’d love others to adopt our technology and our methods. We’ll be as open as we can be with our technology and our standards, with the aim of encouraging others to follow or even improve on what we’ve built. We have established an independent foundation to take this work forward; it is early days but the potential is there to be seen at www.40Fires.org. The more people who follow us the more we’ll eliminate environmental impact. And the lower we’ll bring the costs of this new technology.

LONGTERM VALUE CREATION

Fundamental to the design of the business is the alignment of interests – of the business, the customers and the planet – as well as all the other critical stakeholders.

It’s a governance system that ensures longterm decision making to create a resilient, sustainable, profitable company.

We have designed a structure of control where each stakeholder group has an equal stake. The company is answerable to six custodians who represent each of our critical stakeholders and hold the voting shares:

Customers, investors, the environment, the community, the staff and our commercial partners.

Our six Custodians appoint five members of our board of directors, and agree our strategy. This equal voting structure  meansthat no single interest can dominate the company to the detriment of another. It’s the key to building a resilient, profitable business that delivers our purpose.

 

MEET THE CUSTODIANS

 

Peter Lang – Environment

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Mike Jones – Community

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Viktor Meng – Investors

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Nico Sergent – Staff

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Steward Dow – Commercial Partners

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Andrew Davies – Users

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Graham Phenix – Steward

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“To pursue, systematically, the elimination of the environmental impact of personal transport”

Everything we do – in the design of the car, the construction of the business, the people we work with – is in pursuit of this goal. It’s the only reason we exist.

That doesn’t mean that we’re all tub-thumping greens (at least not all the time) but it is something we take very seriously indeed. The “whole system” design approach to the business ensures that the more successful we are the closer we get to eliminating environmental impact.

 

MOBILITY AT ZERO COST TO THE PLANET

We want to make it possible for everyone to move freely without any cost to the planet. Our aim is to ensure the social and economic benefits of mobility without any cost to the environment.

We don’t want to stop anyone from driving. We want to replace ‘bad’ miles with ‘good’. Reducing environmental damage is not enough – what we’re after is the elimination of environmental damage.

 

LESS UNSUSTAINABLE IS NOT SUSTAINABLE 

The design of the car, the design of the business, and the structure of the company are all part of a ‘whole system’ approach to pursue our goal.

We’ve come a long way but we’re by no means there yet. We’ll keep looking for systematic ways to eradicate the environmental impact of the car and its usage.

 

A SYSTEM TO BE COPIED

We don’t see what we do, how we operate, as a point of difference. We see it as a new model for a new type of business – a model that could be applied not just to mobility but to housing, food, energy, finance. We are open about our technology and how we operate in the hope that others like what they see and copy it.

Have a look at Hugo’s story to hear him talk about our purpose.

Riversimple is the brainchild of Hugo Spowers, a former motorsport engineer and racing driver.

Hugo’s early life was characterised by his twin fascination for science and dangerous sports. The former led him to an encyclopaedic understanding of systems design, the latter into the dangerous sports club and motorsport. For 15 years Hugo designed, built and drove racing cars and restored historic racing cars.

In the late 1990s his concerns about the environmental impact of the sport led him to think there had to be a better way. Inspired by the work of Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute on lightweight network electric vehicles, he set up Riversimple’s predecessor, Oscar. He brought together the LIFECar consortium with the Morgan Motor Co., BOC, Qinetiq, Cranfield University and Oxford University and funding from the UK’s Technology Strategy Board. This research project produced a demonstration hydrogen fuel cell sports car.

Hugo realized that to change the way we all think about mobility wasn’t just a matter of new technology, it required a complete redesign of business. This “whole system approach” infuses the operating principles and the business structure of Riversimple. Hugo designed not just the car, but a new business model and a new governance system.

The Open Source Hydrogen Car

Come and join us.

We’re always on the look out for talented individuals who want to help us change the world for the better.

Right now we’re busy finalizing the production car and getting ready to come to our pilot markets in the second half of next year.

We are based in the beautiful surroundings of Llandrindod Wells.

If you’re interested in coming to meet us and joining the team, please email marie.faichney@riversimple.com

NOW BASED IN WALES

June 20, 2014

Glorious sunshine and beautiful views of Welsh hills  have welcomed us to our new workshop and offices in Llandrindod Wells. We will be building our prototype vehicles on site here.  Find our new address in the contact details. 

SustainValue PROJECT ADDS ITS OWN VALUE 

June 20, 2014

Riversimple has been involved in this successful EU funded project to develop new tools and methods for sustainable manufacturing. Nico Sergent comments that the project has proved valuable to Riversimple in the development of our governance and business model. A good read. http://phys.org/news/2014-06-methods-tools-sustainable.html

CLARITY ON REFUELLING 

May 15, 2014

Thank you, Honda, for explaining the technology and showing the world how to refuel a hydrogen car. http://t.co/5L0K54q8Cu. Simple and straightforward. Our sentiments exactly.

 

RIVERSIMPLE AMONG THE ‘INNOVATORS CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE’   

 April 26, 2014

Riversimple is cited as one of pioneering companies in the Innovation Showcase launched to accompany Jonathon Porritt’s new book. An optimistic view for the future of the environment, ‘The World We Made’ is told through the words of Alex McKay, a teacher looking back from 2050 to tell the story of how we got from where we are today (in a pretty bad way, environmentally) to a much better place in 2050. Check out the showcase – http://www.theinnovationshowcase.co

 

RIVERSIMPLE RAISES MONEY TO CONTINUE DEVELOPMENT

 March 24, 2014

Riversimple, the UK based car company, announced today that it has raised the money to continue the development of its ultra low emissions car and further its aim of having production vehicles tested on the streets next year. The “substantial” amount has come from the original backers, Bscope, the long-term direct investment arm of the Piech-Nordhoff family.

Riversimple managing director Martin Wilderer said: “This investment will enable Riversimple to carry out additional research and development on our new production car and employ the people who will help us get cars on the street. We will focus on developing the vehicle and innovative user model. Our designer Chris Reitz and his team in Barcelona are close to creating a completely new look. These are exciting times.”

Sebastian Piëch, the chairman of Bscope and Riversimple, said: “I believe the market timing is right internationally for greater diversification in personal transport. Riversimple fits with Bscope’s strategy of identifying genuine disruptive investments which will allow current and future generations to live without an expansion in resource use.”

Piech added: “Bscope is focused on investing in companies and supporting initiatives that offer truly sustainable alternative solutions to current practice.”

Riversimple’s Mark 1 Technology Demonstrator achieved an equivalent energy consumption of 200 mpg using a 6kw hydrogen fuel cell – an unprecedented degree of fuel economy. This is achieved by using lightweight materials and marrying the fuel cell to a ‘network electric’ platform including both supercapacitors and regenerative brakes.  These design principles are now being applied to fleets of local cars, with each fleet commercially viable from a single hydrogen filling station.

Wilderer said: “Riversimple’s business model appeals to forward looking and creative investors. We reject the traditional commercial model of selling cars in favour of selling usage contracts. This turns efficiency and longevity into a source of competitive advantage.”

The company was started by Hugo Spowers, who developed the company with the support of a network of British universities and BOC.  He now has twin roles as Riversimple’s Technology Director and Company Architect.

‘We have taken a whole systems approach to personal transport and designed solutions which are technologically and economically suited to the new century,’ says Spowers.  ‘We are delighted to have continued support from Bscope and the Piëch Nordhoff family.’