Nissan is working on a new fuel system that may replace petrol, pure electric and even hydrogen fuel driven cars. The Nissan bio-ethanol electric power system wants to change everything.

So what is this e-bio fuel cell driven car? It uses what Nissan calls a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell, or SOFC for short. Essentially this is a generator that turns bio-fuel into electricity which charges a battery – that battery then drives the motor. So it's quite like a hydrogen fuel cell driven car then.

The advantages of this system are primarily that it's more sustainable than petrol or diesel, it can be filled faster than pure electric using current pump systems and it uses a sustainable fuel that's CO2 neutral. All that and it'll offer an impressive 600km range on a tank.

The bio-ethanol can be made from corn or sugarcane and mixed with water making it safer than other fuels. That also means it can be transported easily and Nissan suggests it could be delivered to owners' homes. Why the car battery can't be plugged in and charged also, ideal for at home, is odd. Perhaps that will be a future development.

At the moment Nissan is simply working on the tech but we'd expect to see more advances soon.

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