Intelligent Energy and Suzuki Motor Co. have teamed up again to put a hydrogen fuel cell motorbike before the public. At the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show the companies showed off the Suzuki Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter, which is slated to roll out in a few months.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the Burgman scooter as one of three FCV’s that Suzuki would rollout at the same auto show. Two years ago I talked about these same two companies partnering to rollout the Suzuki Crosscage motorcycle.
The Suzuki Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter one ups the Crosscage in that it uses a 70MPa high pressure 10-liter hydrogen tank compared to the 35MPa tank on the Crosscage. The Burgman scooter can also travel around 210 miles before it needs to refuel with hydrogen.
The Suzuki Burgman Scooter is considered a city bike, not rated for highway use. This FCV scooter will most likely be sold in areas where some semblance of a hydrogen highway refueling system already exists such as Japan, Germany and California.
The Burgman is also a hybrid vehicle as it uses a 500Wh lithium ion battery pack for quick acceleration, storage of regenerative electric power and storage of extra energy supplied by the air-cooled fuel cell.
I can also see the Suzuki Burgman Scooter as a good fit for some of the college campuses (and student / faculty projects) around the world that are already equipped with their own hydrogen fueling pumps.
The first commercial mass produced road read FCV that people can buy may just turn out to be a scooter. This may be just the kick start we’ve needed to get the hydrogen transportation system rolling.
What will this thing cost?
This is anyone’s guess. Since this post, there has been one delay after another in rolling this out.