(It’s like a C-cubed went back to the future)
DigitalWorldTokyo.com introduces it like this… “Visitors to next week’s International Electric Automobile show in Yokohama will get a chance to see Yamaha’s hydrogen fuel-cell powered scooter, the FC-Aqel. The 125cc machine carries two compressed hydrogen tanks and has LED lights.
Yamaha’s previous attempt to use methanol DMFCs produced only enough power for a 50cc bike.”
You may recall this 2003 entry by it’s name the FC-me, which lent itself to many creative alterations. In case you’re wondering about the name on this new baby, the FC-AQEL, it comes from FC for “Fuel Cell”, and AQEL coming from “Acqua (the Italian word for water)” and “Electric”… AQEL. Check out their press release here. Very fanciful Yamaha! Keep up the development! We’ll keep an eye out for the production version.
***UPDATE 10/30/06***
More info is now here at Gizmag!
21. October 2006 at 7:23 am
I worry about all this electric scooter development. While there are many very good reasons to make a scooter electric (performance, cleanliness, cheap energy) there’s one really big reason not to.
The smaller the vehicle, the more it benefits from an energy source with a really high density. Batteries can nearly double the mass of a smaller scooter in order to meet the original gas-powered range. I suspect a fuel cell is not much better because it takes a lot of hydrogen, volume-wise, to match gasoline. With big tanks and the fuel cell itself, plus the electric motors and controllers, that could be a surprisingly heavy scoot.
Nothing that’s come down the pipeline yet has a realistic chance at beating gasoline for energy density, especially if 2-strokes are permitted. I say it’s time to stop mucking about with fuel cell scooters and move straight to nuclear power!
21. October 2006 at 9:29 am
Maybe I should clarify my earlier statement. I’m not against electric vehicles, indeed I’ve seen some of the best of them here in Silicon Valley (Tesla, Wrightspeed, Tango). You CAN make a really kick-ass electric scooter, it just won’t go very far. If it’s powered by batteries, you’re also guaranteed to spend more of your day charging than riding, unless you have a quick-swap battery pack like the Electricross dirt bike.
21. October 2006 at 4:49 pm
As far as energy density goes, A fully practical electrical scooter is possible with the right batteries. Just have to spend an ass-load of money for decent batteries at the moment. But thats changing… Also, I used to race 1/10 scale electric remote controlled race cars and those little buggers could do 50mph easily, Thats 500MPH*scale speed*! and would run for 6-7 min. at that speed, If you ran only at 25mph*250mph scale speed* then it would run for at least 30 min. I think the economy of scale works in favor for scooters.
21. October 2006 at 6:19 pm
That thing is beautiful. That is one direction modern scooter manufacturers should go for styling.
22. October 2006 at 11:37 pm
Yes it looks so futuristic. I love it!