With cities around the world trying to save us from the catastrophe that can be caused by global warming, reducing carbon emissions is a must, and studies from around the world have mentioned that private transportation(mainly cars) is one of the many contributors to the increasing greenhouse gas emissions across the globe. Therefore, we can see many countries are now encouraging its citizen to walk, use public transport or cycle to school and work instead of using cars, by improving public transport services and introducing bicycle-friendly infrastructure to their cities instead.

China is no exception to the ongoing trend of reducing its carbon emissions, and it is even the industry leader in the expansion of its high-speed rail network in the past decade in efforts to reduce transportation carbon emissions. And now, the country is introducing an alternative transport to use on the road, hydrogen-powered electric bicycles!

An established Chinese bicycle-sharing platform, YouOn has launched its first in-house hydrogen-powered bicycles to the public on 22 December 2021. Currently, these bicycles are only offered in Changzhou urban city area in the Jiangsu province of China. As of the launch day, there are 1000 of these bicycles offered in the area at a rental price of 2 RMB per 20 minutes.

For the build of the bicycle, it is made of strengthened metal painted with bright pastel blue paint. The hydrogen fuel tank is inside the diagonal body of the bicycle, and the hydrogen power transformer/battery pack is located under the cyclist’s seat. Despite its many components, the bicycle is said to be lightweight as well as safe for cyclists to cycle in the city with no worries.

A spokesperson from YouOn highlighted the features of the company’s new hydrogen-powered electric bicycles: an amazing mileage of 70km on full hydrogen power, reaching up to speeds of 23km/h, and the ability for cyclists to save energy when biking on an uphill journey since the electric power can assist the bicycle going against gravity.

It was known that YouOn has been developing the concept of hydrogen-powered electric bicycles since 2017, and it had the first successful trial run of its first prototype back in October 2019. The main concern during research and development was to solve the hydrogen storage problem via engineering. YouOn had to develop a low-pressurized hydrogen fuel tank that could compress 30MPa to 2MPa to allow more mileage for the bicycle on hydrogen power. 

With this latest innovation, the mileage of hydrogen-powered electric bicycles has surpassed those of electric bicycles powered by Lithium-ion batteries. As of current, the manufacturing costs of the bicycles are higher than its Lithium-ion counterpart, but YouOn is expecting to expand the availability of these bicycles with 10,000 more of them on the road by the end of 2022 to promote better awareness of our carbon footprint.

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(Via)

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