It’s a technique that’s labored: These bikes have been extra readily accepted by native governments. In 2022, Youon bought 2,000 of its hydrogen bikes to Lingang, a brand new high-tech district in Shanghai; in 2023, the corporate bought 500 hydrogen bikes to the Daxing district of Beijing. Today, its hydrogen bikes could be discovered in over six Chinese cities.
Youon has since doubled down on its funding in hydrogen. The firm has launched a product that lets customers generate hydrogen at house with solar energy and water. It additionally labored with the native authorities of Jiangsu, the place its headquarters are, to publish a set of trade requirements protecting security necessities, hydrogen tanks, and extra. “Hydrogen power can be a vital pathway to attaining carbon neutrality,” stated Sun Jisheng, the CEO of Youon, at an trade convention in June.
The drawback
However, that’s about the place the benefit of hydrogen bikes ends.
David Fishman, a China-based senior supervisor of the Lantou Group, an power consultancy, says he struggles to see the benefit. “Maybe the security angle is a related issue for somebody who doesn’t like carrying round lithium-ion batteries and storing them in their home,” he says. Other than that, hydrogen bikes are much less energy-efficient than battery-powered bikes, and it prices extra to produce hydrogen in the primary place.
The fundamental benefit of hydrogen as an power supply is that it has a lot greater power density, that means a hydrogen tank with the identical weight as a lithium battery would produce extra power and energy the automobiles to go farther. However, that benefit solely kicks in for journeys over 800 kilometers, says Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University.
That means hydrogen is a extra economical alternative for long-distance transportation like ships, planes, and vehicles. Bikes, nevertheless, are virtually on the precise reverse finish of the transportation spectrum. Few individuals would bike for lengthy distances, not to mention those that are solely renting a public bike for a short while. For something shorter than 800 km, battery-powered automobiles are extra power environment friendly, says Jacobson. He estimates {that a} battery-powered bike consumes solely 40% of the power of a hydrogen-powered equal and in addition takes up much less area.
On prime of that, the corporate’s hydrogen bikes have failed to impress lots of the early adopters.
VIA YOUONBIKESHARE.COM
Gu, a resident of Lingang who solely needs to use his final identify for this story, tells MIT Technology Review that he tried the bikes a number of occasions and so they by no means felt effort-saving to him. Instead, the bike, together with the hydrogen tank and fuel-cell-powered motors, felt heavy and laborious to maneuver. As a person, he has no concept whether or not the bike was working as anticipated or if the issue he encountered was due to its working out of hydrogen, though the corporate is meant to block any bike with low hydrogen reserves from being unlocked.
