Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Hydrogen powered electric bike

This is a guest post by Andreas who writes about cycling in London on his blog. You can follow him on Twitter here.

We all know electric bikes are becoming more popular, they featured heavily at various cycle shows. In China they sell around 10 million every year. It is likely sales in other countries will grow rapidly over the coming years. However, there is a downside to these electric bikes. They have acid batteries and millions get thrown out every year. So what is the solution?

Hydrogen! Whilst the JP bike by Iwatawi, a Tokyo based company, is not the first to use hydrogen fuel cells it is perhaps the ugliest! The CO2 emissions for this bike are exactly zero (post production of-course).

Specification wise the bike is able to reach a power assisted distance of 45 miles. Onboard there are hydrogen cartridges but also a lithium-ion battery. When the hydrogen runs out it can instantly switch to the battery.

Iwatani will be testing the product in Osaka starting tomorrow. However, it is unclear whether it will ever be mass produced as hydrogen production remains expensive. The only way transport can get more eco-friendly is if you actually cycle!

Source: Crunch Gear

1 comment:

bikesgonewild said...

..."The only way transport can get more eco-friendly is if you actually cycle!"...

...thank you, oh erudite soothsayer...

...in reality, you are 100% right...it just seems funny that the absolute truth needs be pointed out...but it usually does, doesn't it ???...