Hydrogen-powered bike costs 7,500 euros

There have been many prototypes from bicycle manufacturers, but the Alpha is the first mass-produced liquid hydrogen-powered bicycle.

Originally a company that specialized in manufacturing fuel cells for the military, Pragma Industries has just shipped the world's first batch of liquid hydrogen-powered bicycles.

This liquid hydrogen is extracted from the electrolysis of water, which splits water molecules (H2O) into oxygen and hydrogen. This is a clean fuel and holds great promise in the vehicle manufacturing industry.

Not only does it contribute to protecting the environment, Pragma's Alpha also overcomes the major obstacle of electric bicycles, which is the long charging time.

At 7,500 euros a piece, the Alpha is considered too expensive compared to the general market for alternative fuel bicycles.

The Alpha can travel 100km on a two-litre tank of liquid hydrogen. This fuel consumption is comparable to that of a conventional electric bike, but the charging speed is faster. It takes just two minutes to fill the Alpha’s hydrogen tank, while an electric bike can take hours to recharge.

“One kilogram of hydrogen contains 600 times more energy than one kilogram of lithium battery,” said Pierre Forte, founder and CEO of Pragma.

Forte shared that the target price that the company is aiming for is 5,000 euros, which will be more suitable for users. This is the price range of high-end electric bicycles.

Pragma also builds and sells a refueling station for as little as 30,000 euros. The station can incorporate a system to electrolyze water into oxygen and hydrogen, supplying it directly to users, or distributing pre-packaged hydrogen tanks.

Alpha aims to serve businesses providing bicycle sharing, transportation and large-scale internal corporate circulation services.

The company plans to produce 150 Alphas this year, with orders pouring in from Norway, the US, Spain, Italy and Germany.

Founder Pierre Forte (right) inspects the first batch of Alpha, produced in Biarritz, France.

“Many other companies have successfully built prototype bicycles that run on liquid hydrogen, but we are the first to mass produce them,” Forte added.

However, the Alpha's limitation is that it depends on the size of the energy tank. To overcome this, Pragma is researching and producing a bicycle that integrates a water electrolysis system directly on the bike. This system will split water into hydrogen and oxygen, allowing the bike to regenerate energy.

“In the next two or three years, we want to penetrate deeper into the personal user market and increase production scale,” Pragma's founder shared.