“We’re designing a radically new car – which will be in market trials late next year. It emits nothing but a tiny amount of water and will do more than the equivalent of 200mpg,” said David Rothera, vehicle electronic engineer at Riversimple.

The firm is developing a two-seater local network electric car, powered by hydrogen fuel cells and with a body made from composite materials.

R&D is led out of Wales by an engineering team drawn from top automotive, aerospace and motor racing; design is led by Chris Reitz, former design chief for the Fiat 500, with his team at their studio in Barcelona.

The team is aiming for fuel efficiency of more than 200mpg, a range of 300 miles, 0-30mph in 5.5 seconds, and a cruising speed of 55 mph.

The demanding electrical design parameters imposed by the use of the crucial lightweight composite body called for closer integration between the circuit design and the electrical harness tools.

“Cloud based design is new for us,” said Rothera, “but even at this early stage we’ve come to appreciate the flexibility of being able to access the design from anywhere. Arcadia is a flexible and intuitive tool, which will be fully able to address the need to include a return path, and other issues specific to the design of this unusual vehicle.”

The Arcadia CAD tool offering schematic design, animated circuit simulation and analysis, electrical networking, harness design and full design rule checking for wire harness layout and manufacture. It interfaces with 3D MCAD and enterprise wide PLM and ERP tools for project management.