Vehicles with electric motors powered by batteries are currently the most advanced and rapidly expanding proposals. In addition to their zero-emission status, they are expected to become increasingly affordable and varied and interesting enough to progressively attract a greater number of drivers.
But, as we know, not all are advantages in this type of mobility alternatives. One of the challenges still pending is to ensure that the generation of the electricity they use is as clean as the operation of the vehicles themselves. Another of those challenges has to do with loading times, although they have been significantly reduced compared to what was needed not long ago.
In any case, these charging times are still considered too long for many drivers, especially when compared to what it takes to fill a fuel tank in a vehicle with a conventional combustion engine. However, there is an alternative solution that can simplify both the issue of electricity generation and the problems with charging times. We are referring to hydrogen.
This option is clean in terms of emissions, just like electricity, but it can be recharged in a tank much faster than recharging an electric battery. Furthermore, approximately one kilo of hydrogen can be enough to travel about 100 km and the only thing its use generates is water.
Despite all this, if we look at automobiles, only two hydrogen models are on sale in our country, such as the Toyota Mirai and the Hyundai Nexo, and there are not many other proposals designed to use it on the horizon. However, hydrogen plays a fundamental role in the transport strategy proposed by the EU in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
In this situation, a hydrogen motorcycle appears that may have a lot to say in its sector in the future. It is called Hydrocycle, a project that was born as a result of the collaboration of a group of companies and research institutions from Germany and the Czech Republic.
The consortium around this project is formed by the German company WätaS Wärmetauscher Sachsen GmbH and the Fraunhofer IWU research institute, which are in charge of the motorcycle’s powertrain, more specifically the fuel cell and the interface between the vehicle and the hydrogen system. In the Czech Republic, the idea caught the attention of 1to1design, the Czech Technical University and the UJV Rez, which will deal with exterior details such as the bodywork or the ergonomics of the vehicle.
For now, hardly any technical details of the Hydrocycle are known, but what we do know is that it is expected that at the end of 2025 there will be a version capable of meeting European approval standards and regulations. Until then, you can learn about other news in the field of hydrogen on two wheels, such as the Kawasaki Ninja H2 Hydrogen that you can see in the video that accompanies this article.