Hydrogen fuel-cell bike gets extended range

Pragma has extended the range of its hydrogen fuel-cell-powered ebike by 50 per cent

Spotted: Last year, Pragma Industries announced that it had begun producing the world’s first mass-production fuel-cell-powered ebike. The bike includes a lithium-ion battery and a fuel-cell powered by a hydrogen gas cylinder. Now, the company has announced a 50 per cent increase in the vehicle’s range, from 62 miles (100km) to 93 miles (150km). At the same time, the average battery-powered ebike has a range of around 31 miles (50km).

However, the hydrogen refuelling stations, which produce hydrogen through the electrolysis of water, cost around €30,000 each, making them too expensive to be installed everywhere. So, Pragma needed to come up with another option for refuelling. The new model simply uses a larger gas cylinder to increase range. 

Pragma has sold a small number of the bikes to French municipalities and has been working to cut the cost of the bikes from around €7,500 to around €5,000, which is similar to the price of other high-end electric bikes. Ultimately, the company hopes to develop an onboard system for converting water to hydrogen, using a chemical reaction between water and aluminium or magnesium to generate the hydrogen gas.

The high-end bikes are primarily aimed at bike-rental operators, delivery companies, and municipal or corporate fleets. The company plans to produce a few hundred of the e-bikes this year.