:: Friday, April 15, 2005 ::

Ride all the way to where the lizards play

A British company called Intelligent Energy has unveiled the world's first purpose-built, fuel-cell motorbike called the ENV (pronounced "envy"), or Emissions Neutral Vehicle. It's got speeds of up to 50 mph, can run up to 4 hours on a full tank, and is made of hollow-cast aircraft grade aluminium in either black supergloss or iridescent white. Its water emissions are so clean as to be drinkable, and more amazingly, it's no more noisy than a desktop computer! Keep in mind, though, that it's designed as a motorbike, not a motorcycle.

"It feels when you ride it to be more like a cycle than a motorbike in the smooth nature of the vehicles motion, because its a bit like skiing on wheels, I characterize it as. And of course, 50 mph on something that's equivalent to a bicycle feels very fast. It's not the fastest thing on two wheels. It's not intended to be. It does naught to fifty in about 12 seconds, but remember, it doesn't have any gears. It does have the ability to free-wheel. So, it has a number of unusual characteristics, which means that it's very easy to use. It just has a simply throttle; and remember the benefit of a fuel cell is that it delivers power instantly. You get a 100 percent torque at zero revs".

The CORE fuel cell is completely detachable, and is designed so that "people will be able to use a bike like ENV to leave work in an urban environment, drive to the countryside, detach the CORE and attach it to another vehicle, such as a motorboat, before going on to power a log cabin with the very same fuel cell, which could then be re-charged from a mini hydrogen creator, the size of a shoebox."

The 1kW CORE is equivalent to a 125cc gasoline engine, and is supplemented by additional 6kW batteries for acceleration. They are recharged by the fuel cell.

Though there are currently only 2 prototypes, if it were to go into production, it would currently cost around $30,000. If the company began producing them in volume, the price range would drop to between $6,000 and $9,500. The possibilities are already being imagined, such as replacing the noissy, polluting motorbikes and scooters in Asian cities. Remembering my trip to Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City), the introduction of such a motorbike would be a huge change.

I'm gonna start saving for one now. Hey, it's no flying car, but it's still pretty damn cool.

A short article on the bike can be found here.

A more detailed article, with more on the CORE fuel cell and lots of cool pictures can be found here.

Swedish word of the day: framtid, which means "future"

:: posted by Rob 10:28 AM [+] ::

2 Comments:

This, a brown suede flight jacket and a space helmet with an egyptian motif and you can relive Battlestar Galactica 1980. :P

((Pretty cool nonetheless))

By  Anonymous, at 8:42 PM  

Galactica 1980? I'm not familiar with that. Maybe it's the same kind of "TV showw/movie that was never made" like the supposed Highlander II. Like an urban legend or something...

By  Rob, at 11:14 PM  

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