Have you heard about the ENV yet? It's pronounced like "envy" and stands for Emissions Energy Vehicle.
After many years of testing, Intelligent Energy of London has developed a motorcycle-like vehicle that shows lots of promise. The ENV was introduced in early 2006 and has shown great promise by being embraced by the public.
The technology used in this vehicle is a fuel cell. For the technology-minded, it uses a proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The cell converts hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity. In short, the fuel cell takes the protons and electrons from the hydrogen atom and this forms an electric current.
This electricity is then fed to a series of batteries which powers an electric motor. This gives the bike its power to run. The only noise emitted is from a cooling fan.
For the technology-minded, there is some fascinating usage of greatly available resources (hydrogen is the most abundant element). For many of us, though, all we are interested is: does it work?
In short, the answer is a resounding yes.
The motorcycle will top out at about 50 miles an hour. True, not freeway speeds, but not everyone has a need to travel at high speeds. And it will run for up to 100 miles or about four hours between fill-ups.
Now this is still a long way from giving many of us all the benefits of our gas-guzzlers. But, it's a terrific start. After all, if this technology is available for a motorcycle, how far behind is the ability to power the SUV?
Another nice advantage to the ENV technology is the quiet operation. A nice quiet ride through the countryside can be just that: quiet. And, who's going to miss the smelly emissions we get from our gas and diesel engines?
The cost for being the "envy" of your neighborhood? Intelligent Energy says that it will sell the bike for somewhere between $6,000 and $8,000 (US).
Maybe these high fuel costs are going to result in something positive after all.
