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The Hybrid Scooter

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-want-my-water-engine dept.

anthemaniac writes "Hybrid cars are all the rage. Now comes a hybrid scooter. It gets beyond ethanol and lots of batteries, though, running on a hydrogen fuel cell that charges a battery. During braking, energy is also harnessed. All this and speedy too, says inventor Crijn Bouman of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. For now, however, the prototype lacks one crucial component: the hydrogen fuel cell! It's coming, Bouman says. Yes, just like $5/gal gas..."

2 of 337 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Go electric by JanneM · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here in Shanghai and everywhere in China, you can buy for an electric bicycle or scooter for less than $200 US dollars after some bargaining.

    They're everywhere in Japan as well, especially the "secondary motor" bicycle kind, where you still pedal and the motor gives you extra help for inclines or headwinds. They extend the range, you don't get sweaty, and they're very cheap to buy and run - the drive system doesn't actually need to be able to push the bike all by itself afer all, so the whole package is small and light.

    --
    Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
  2. Not even funny anymore by rammer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    >Sweden already have it.

    So does Finland and many other nations around the world.

    I always found it rather amusing the way people in the US bitched about "high" fuel prices.
    BOO HOO.

    This morning here in Tampere,Finland the price was 1.42 EUR/l for 95 octane (6.843 USD/gal for SI-unit impaired).
    This about average for the whole of Finland.
    Combine this with the fact that due to idiotic taxation Finland has the oldest cars in EU. (Not counting former soviet bloc).
    And cold winters. And large distances. Then you will have some understanding of how much it sucks to have these fuel prices.

    Stop complaining until your gasoline prices are as high as this.
    Although when the US has $6 gas we will probably have to pay 12.

    What is the price of fuel ethanol again?

    Within the next year fuel ethanol will be cheaper than gasoline almost everywhere. If current trends continue.
    They probably will not continue due to increased use of ethanol.

    But within 5 years ethanol will the fuel of choice.
    And until they can manufacture hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen in sufficient quantities for sufficient prices I don't imagine that this will change. Maybe in the next 20 years. Maybe by then we will have fusion reactors. (Yeah right!!)