Apricale Virtech
hydrogen hypercar (2022)
Apricale is a hypercar designed by Viritech in collaboration with Pininfarina in 2022, a hydrogen-powered electric car with a power unit capable of delivering 1,000 horsepower. Apricale is the first car in the world under a thousand kilos in weight with zero emissions and high performance.
Apricale is presented to the public in June 2022, during the 29th edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed on the Goodwood estate (West Sussex) owned by the Duke of Richmond.
Pininfarina contributed to the definition of the Apricale design following the brand's indications. The appearance is aggressive and recalls traditional mid-engine hypercars. There is no shortage of original ideas, for example in the cutting of the air intakes.
For Silvio Angori, CEO of Pininfarina, Apricale is: «a synthesis of technology, sustainability, beauty and above all performance». From the prototype, the production of 25 examples developed by Pininfarina in the Cambiano factory in Turin. First deliveries expected from 2024
Viritech, with this project, demonstrates that it is possible to create electric-powered sports vehicles with low weight, on par with a hypercar with a traditional engine.
The car has dynamic characteristics of a mid-engined "classic supercar" with minimal weight transfer in understeer, yaw and pitch.
On board the car there are compact lithium batteries which have the task of storing the energy recovered during braking.
The heart of the car is the Fuel Cell powertrain developed with AMTE Power and Tri-Volt.
The solution designed to achieve maximum performance represents one of the key patents of this prototype.
The other new feature of the car is the hydrogen storage technology, which requires tanks at 700 bar pressure weighing approximately 100 kg for every 5 kg of fuel. Viritech has studied a composite combined with a graphene resin which transforms into a structural element of the car inside the monocoque, thus obtaining a range of over 560 km without negatively impacting the weight balance and total mass. The lightweight structure of the entire car also made it possible to simplify the work of the suspensions, designed in this case with a pull-rod scheme on both axles.
Apricale Viritech involves the use of two electric motors combined with mechanical differentials: the limited weight has in fact made it possible to avoid having to resort to torque vectoring and more complex transmission systems.
