A little less than a week ago Linde unveiled their version of the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell bike (H2 Bike pictured above). This unveiling was on the heels of Pragma Industries showing off their world’s first hydrogen bike, the Alpha, on the first week of October.
This begs the question of how many world’s first hydrogen fuel cell bikes have there been? While this question is a bit difficult to answer as many H2 fuel cell bikes may have flown under the radar, what I can talk about are the hydrogen bikes I have blogged about in the past.
Here is a short list of the other hydrogen bikes:
- Electrolyte Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bike
- Gitane Alter Bike by Cycleurope
- Pedego Electric H2 Bike
- ACTA hydrogen bike
- Iwatani hydrogen bike
- Valeswood Pearl hydrogen bike
- Shanghai Pearl Hydrogen Bike
- Masterflex Cargobike
The first world’s first hydrogen fuel cell bike that I had blogged about was back in May of 2007, the Valeswood H-Bike. Since that time there have been about 10 more making this claim.
Does it REALLY matter which bicycle was the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell bike? In the bigger scheme of things, no, not really. I’m just being anal retentive (do people actually still say this?) What does matter is that different manufacturers see value in pushing this green technology forward. In fact, now that I’ve gotten this off my chest, I’m ready for another world’s first hydrogen fuel cell bike.
But, if you want me to name the world’s first hydrogen scooter or motorcycle, like Molly Shannon used to say on Saturday Night Live, “Don’t get me started, don’t even get me started.” 🙂
Thanks to @FuelCellGirl for this resource – Scroll down to page 13 to see even older fuel cell bikes – http://www.fuelcells.org/pdfs/specialty.pdf
Please say OCD instead of anal.
Yes, you’re right, Dave, thanks! 🙂
Here’s a tidbit emailed in from George W., “Being an old-timer of the auto industry, I followed evolution and development of FCVs for several decades. When writing extensively about it, I try to fit innovation into historical context. In the long line of ‘World’s first FC bikes’, it was Karl Kordesch and his bicycle in 1967 being truly the World’s First.”
And here is the link: http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/alk/alk2.htm
Thanks, George!