Fuel cells are appearing in vehicles in small numbers. usually they do not increase range and the option of finding a bottle of hydrogen is not necessarily more attractive than finding an electric socket but instant refuelling and the prospect of long range later are attracting some vehicle companies, as Electric Vehicles Research will be reporting. In February, UK fuel cell manufacturer Intelligent Energy, and the Suzuki Motor Corporation jointly unveiled the Suzuki Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter in London's Living Room, City Hall, London. First presented at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, the city friendly Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter builds upon the success of the Crosscage fuel cell motorbike unveiled in 2007.
The Fuel Cell Burgman takes the next step towards offering cleaner, more efficient motorcycles in a practical and accessible form with the potential to significantly reduce emissions around the world. Intelligent Energy hydrogen fuel cells have been used in AeroVironment unmanned pure electric, solar powered aircraft cruising the upper atmosphere for surveillance purposes.
This month, APFCT won a contract for fuel cell micro car fleet demonstration under Demonstration and Verification Program of Hydrogen Energy Industry organized by Bureau of Energy, Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan (BoE). APFCT will develop a 10-unit fleet of 48V fuel cell micro cars starting September 2010 with completion early 2011 with a 15-month fleet demonstration data acquisition phase following.
Nominal power output is 3kW and maximum power output is 5kW. The hydrogen supply for the cars uses low-pressure metal hydride base canisters developed by APFCT for light electric fuel cell vehicles. Late 2009, APFCT won a contract for a 10-unit fleet demonstration of ZES 4.6 fuel cell scooters under the same government program. Production of the 10 scooters was completed in July 2010 and riding and data collection is now proceeding.
Project Manager of APFCT, H.S. Chang says that the purpose of the fleet demonstration is verifications of the fuel cell vehicle fleet under real world operating conditions. Validation of the low pressure solid hydrogen supply infrastructure based on the exchange model proposed by the APFCT is also proceeding.
Initially, the fuel cell scooters are ridden by technicians and other specific participants under various normal riding conditions. The duration of this phase will be June 2010 to June 2011. Verification mileage for each vehicle must reach at least 1,000km to provide valid data for future development. Up to end of July, 2010, the total mileage of the fleet had reached 3,344.5 km and 161 hours use.
On the other hand, the Ahi Fambeni hydrogen fuel cell electric bicycle from South Africa has just been demonstrated as a bridge to a fuel cell powered car.
Source: Pierre Terblanche
It was designed by South African motorcycle designer Pierre Terblanche, formerly design director for Ducati and now design consultant for the Piaggio group, across all their brands, which include Moto Guzzi and Vespa.
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