Intelligent Energy clarifies status of its fuel cell development projects
26 May 2009
Intelligent Energy would like to clarify the status of its ongoing fuel cell motorcycle development projects, in the light of some potentially misleading information published recently.
We remain hard at work to bring fuel cell motorcycles to the market. Since we launched the ENV in 2005, we’ve made great strides with development of the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell motorcycle. We are also working with Suzuki, having launched the Crosscage in late 2007 and extended our relationship to ensure that this exciting programme progresses further. Both projects continue to meet milestones and we are extremely happy with how well these bikes are performing as we work on the latest versions.
As has been mentioned in some media reports, a major focus for Intelligent Energy is certification of fuel cell motorbikes. Although for commercial reasons, we can’t yet disclose what the power output from these fuel cell stacks will be, our goal is to build bikes which satisfy the requirements of zero tailpipe emissions, range and quick refuelling times. As before, such motorbikes will be hybrids, with power also available from a battery that will be recharged from the fuel cell system.
Unfortunately, these bikes will NOT be available on the market to all consumers at the end of this year. Intelligent Energy does not claim that this would be the case. We DO intend to launch a test fleet working near our headquarters in Loughborough from the end of 2009, although details on how these bikes will look are yet to be disclosed. The purpose of this trial fleet will be to test the performance and range of these new bikes with real fleet customers. The fleet will amount to a small number that we can monitor for an extended period before moving to the next phase on the path to full commercialisation.
Intelligent Energy is leading a consortium that aims to put a fleet of fuel cell taxis on the streets of London in the Olympic year of 2012. It is also our hope to run a fleet of fuel cell motorcycles at the same time.
Lastly, we designed and developed our very versatile clean power systems so that they lend themselves to economically feasible mass manufacture, and in such a way that the fuel cell products marketed by our partners are affordable for consumers. We remain committed to bringing fuel cell technology to the market at competitive prices.
Henri Winand
Chief executive officer, Intelligent Energy
Contact us
Adrian Harrington
AxiCom Cohn & Wolfe PR for Intelligent Energy
adrian.harrington@axicom.com
T +44 (0)208 3924075
Dr Jon Moore
Director of communications, Intelligent Energy
jon.moore@intelligent-energy.com
T +44 (0)1509 225863