TVS’ Hydrogen-powered e-Scooter In The Works

The Indian bikemaker’s portfolio could soon include hydrogen fuel cell models

A leaked patent document making rounds on the Internet reveals that TVS might be working on a hydrogen-powered e-scooter and joining the bandwagon of automakers exploring alternatives to petrol and diesel fuels.

The Hosur-based bikemaker, which already has the iQube Electric, is now working on a new scooter which seems to be built on the same platform as the iQube, but is powered by hydrogen.

According to the patent, TVS plans on storing the hydrogen in two canisters clamped to the front down tube of the scooter’s frame. This should allow for easier accessibility of the same. The fuel cell stack can be seen placed under the seat of the scooter, similar to where you would find swappable battery packs on EVs.

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The patent also features a battery pack placed under the floorboard of the scooter, which could be used to deliver an extra boost on demand. It could also store the energy generated from braking and deceleration, and the fuel cell can also recharge the battery pack when power demands are low.

Why hydrogen fuel cells? The hydrogen fuel cell technology produces zero emissions and is lighter and faster to refuel than battery-powered vehicles and, interestingly, is less resource intensive to make. 

However, the reason why the technology has not been comprehensively put to use yet is that hydrogen has a very small atomic size, which causes it to leak through containers.

It is exciting to see what the future holds. However, the infrastructure in India to sustain hydrogen-powered vehicles is in the very preliminary stages and will take quite some time to develop. Till then, if you are looking to ditch petrol, you can check out iQube’s rivals like the Ather 450X, Bajaj Chetak, Ola S1 Pro and Simple One.

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