First Hydrogen Fuelled Scooter

Is this the shape of things to come?

A university in southern Taiwan has unveiled its first hydrogen-powered electric scooter.

Called the “Pegasus One”, its maiden run consisted of 80km (50 miles), but the estimated range is easily double that,

according to Dr. Wei-Hsiang Lai, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the National Cheng Kung University.

The new scooter is an upgrade to their original electric scooter, and was achieved by adding a 3-kW Ballard fuel cell and two high pressure hydrogen storage cylinders to the vehicle to build a power system that runs by transmitting hydrogen energy to electricity via the fuel cell.

Dr Lai said that because of the high efficiency of a fuel cell, as well as the clean energy of hydrogen, only water moisture is exhausted to the atmosphere, and it is an almost zero emission vehicle with a high performance. “As long as the storage pressure can be raised up to 700 bar in Taiwan, the range of “Pegasus One” can be further extended to 300 km”, he added.

What do you think? I know that some motorcycle riders balk at the idea of giving up their “rolling thunder”, and gear changes. Having ridden a prototype electric motorcycle a couple of years ago (I don’t know what it was, as it was all very “hush hush”), I eagerly await the alternative to being propelled down the road by a series of explosions.

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