Italian green car researchers die after prototype explodes during test drive

National Research Council pays tribute to senior scholar Maria Vittoria Prati and trainee Fulvio Filace

Representational: Italian authorities are investigating the cause of the blast (EPA)

Two Italian researchers died after a hybrid car prototype that was being developed with EU funds exploded during a road test.

The researchers were working on the Life-Save project that aimed to turn cars with conventional combustion engines into hybrid vehicles, running at least partly on solar energy.

Maria Vittoria Prati, senior scholar and engineer at Italy’s National Research Council, and trainee Fulvio Filace were rushed to hospital with severe burns after the prototype blew up in the southern Italian city of Naples last Friday.

Prati, 66, died of complications from third-degree burns on Monday, while 25-year-old Filace, died overnight, according to a spokesperson for the Cardarelli hospital in Naples.

Both Prati and Filace were hospitalised "in very serious conditions" but "there was more hope of saving" Filace "given his younger age," spokesperson Pietro Rinaldi, told Reuters. "But it was not enough," he added.

The duo were test-driving a modified Volkswagen Polo equipped with new technology that would allow drivers to transform their old cars into solar-powered electric vehicles.

Prosecutors are trying to find the cause of the explosion, although their investigation is currently not targetting any specific suspect, news agency ANSA reported.

The research council expressed "great shock and sorrow" for the deaths, adding it had begun an internal audit and was cooperating with the investigations.

It paid tribute to Prati as “a brilliant researcher” and “an authority in the field of the study of emissions and the use of alternative fuels".

eProInn, a spin-off of the University of Salerno in southern Italy that had a lead role in the Life-Save project, was working on retro-fitting conventional cars with solar-hybrid powertrains.

Its patented idea was to equip regular production cars with additional electric motors, charged by a battery and solar panels fitted on the roof and the bonnet.

The project was financed by the European Commission's Life Programme and has received about €1.8m (£1.55m) since 2017. Its website was reportedly deactivated following Friday's accident.