Moving further toward environmental conservation, Pragma industries has developed and manufactured a hydrogen-powered bicycle.

The startup’s ‘Alpha bike’ looks like any other bicycle but runs off a two-litre tank of hydrogen which can be refilled within a few minutes. The company produced 100 hydrogen-powered bicycles last year, which can run for around 100 km.

“Many others have made hydrogen bike prototypes, but we are the first to move to series production,” Pierre Forte, Founder and Chief Executive of Pragma Industries told Reuters.

The French fuel cell production company usually aims its products towards the military. Their ‘Alpha bike,’ is targeted at bike-rental companies, delivery companies and for municipal and corporate use. The company has sold around 60 of their bicycles to Saint Lo, Cherbourg, Chambery and Bayonne among other French municipalities.

“In the next two-three years we want to enter the consumer market and massively increase the scale of our operations,” Forte said.

With the bikes currently costing 7,500 euros each, the startup is working to lower that price to around 5,000 euros each, making it more affordable to consumers. According to Forte, the company has received international interest from countries such as the United States, Spain, Norway, Italy and Germany.

In comparison to the hydrogen-powered bicycle, an electric bicycle takes much longer to charge, a matter of hours, with around the same distance capacity as the ‘Alpha bike.’ Additionally, the amount of energy in a one-kilo lithium battery is around 600 times less than the energy found in the same amount of Hydrogen.

The startup is also working on a bicycle model that converts water into hydrogen or converting magnesium powder into gas, in order to increase the bike’s capabilities.

The company also sells charging stations for 30,000 euros each and has plans to produce 150 hydrogen-powered bicycles in 2018.

(Picture courtesy: https://presselib.com/)