Remember LMG Auto and Hydroxene?

Seven months ago, on August 15, some f'lers came out claiming they're about to revolutionise the car industry. Just add water ... blared the ads (although any advertising hack could've told you it's a tagline stolen from Arena swimwear back in the early 90s).

The news reached around the globe albeit greeted with fair sceptism. Many weren't sure about its claims, because not much was revealed in the first place. Let's wait and see, advocated the fair-minded.

The trick was in Hydroxene - a Putrajaya-pioneered secret recipe so finger lickin' good it was bound to weaken the knees of the greatest energy researchers the world over. This technology uses half the gas for the same mile by combining hydrogen extracted from water. Boosted combustion, that's the essence.

The principle is good enough, but making it cheaply has always been the problem. Some of the best brains in energy and engineering have been racing to reach that goal. But Malaysia Boleh.

Thanks to waste aluminium and water in a 'magic canister', this hydrogen extraction had been solved. Thanks to Dr Halim Mohd Ali (left in pic), inventor, patent-holder, Ph.D alumnus of Birmingham University and director of Hydrogen Fuel Technology (M) Sdn Bhd.

He was very protective about the technology.

Reported the Star back then:
He said that although he has received offers to sell the technology, some offers amounting to US$26mil (RM95.7mil), he had no intention of letting foreign parties get hold of it. ... "There are only 12 people in the world who know how hydroxene works and even then they only know 70% of the technology,” he said, adding that the core aspects of the technology remained with him.


You'd need shades for such kegemilangan.

And so LMG Auto was founded rolling out two SUV models, Trekker and Tourer, which use this secret nano-mano-adotechnology. The product is a tie-in with Dadi Auto of China and priced vey nicely (Tourer, the cheaper model was RM58,888). Why a tie-in with ailing Proton wasn't done, nobody said nothin'.

AAB (they tested the magic canister on one of his cars) officially launched it so some are still wondering if LMG Auto has qualified to be the third - or is it the fourth? - national vehicle.

In any case, big plans were afoot that August day. LM Star Autoworld, the parent company, was going to invest in a RM378 million manufacturing plant in Johor; they were targeting sales of 18,000 vehicles mostly for export.

Most of all, the world held its breath for this new kid-guru to show us the way with a new technology which could fundamentally change how energy is generated in countless aspects of our lives, not just transportation.



Seven months later, I may be blind but I see squat. I'd like to know more but its website is still under construction. So you tell me. Is this for real?


pic credit: The Star