Is TVS Working On A Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Scooter?

Slowly but surely, the transport world is moving towards electric, due to multiple concerns like global warming, & high cost of conventional fuels due to rising demand and falling supply among others. There are multiple ways to achieve electrification of vehicles. A vehicle can either have a battery which can be charged from a charging station or at your home, or the EV can make its electricity on board. In the second option, the electricity can be made in two ways again, either by pairing a combustion engine to a generator (like in some hybrid vehicles), or by having a fuel cell on board, which uses alternative fuels - like hydrogen - to generate its electricity.

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Battery powered electric vehicles (BEV) are the most popular choice amongst the EVs, as they're the cheapest to run and are the most efficient. The research and development cost that goes into making a BEV is also relatively much lesser compared to a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV), which is why, not only globally but also in India, many different models of BEVs are on sale, which include everything from large electric buses, right down to electric scooters. However, the biggest drawback of a BEV for a consumer is its charging time, as regardless of how fast or sophisticated your car's charging technology is, it will still have you wait at least an hour to fill to 100 per cent from a low battery charge. This amount of time significantly increases if you're using a home wall box charger or a portable charger.

One of the biggest drawback of a BEV is the time required to charge it.

Hydrogen FCEVs on the other hand can be filled up in the matter of minutes, much like a CNG vehicle, and can provide an even longer range. This seems to have prompted one of the world's largest two-wheeler manufacturer - TVS - to work on a hydrogen powered scooter. While details are scarce at the moment and we may find out more about the scooter in the coming months, a patent application filed in the UK by TVS has been leaked online, which shows a drawing of the TVS iQube powered by hydrogen.

The hydrogen canisters in the electric scooter are placed in the front downtube of the frame, between the floorboard and the front wheel. There's also a battery in the floorboard, and it is expected that it will serve an auxiliary purpose, like storing regenerative energy from braking, and some extra energy from the fuel cell while the e-scooter is in low demand riding, to then use when the throttle input is aggressive. The technical drawings of TVS' FCEV look pretty thorough, meaning that TVS Motor Company could be well along the way in terms of the research & development of the scooter, and the hydrogen powered model could hit the streets as early as the end of 2023.

Now while FCEVs sound like a better proposition than BEVs, that is not entirely the case. For starters, Hydrogen - which is the most abundant element in the universe - is not abundant on Earth in the form of H₂. Most of the Hydrogen on Earth exists as water (H₂O), and to separate hydrogen from oxygen, water needs to be electrified. So, the raw materials to make hydrogen are electricity & water, and this hydrogen is later used in a vehicle to to generate electricity again by combining it with the oxygen in the air, and the reaction gives out water again. This process sounds simple, but it is not as efficient, and when compared to using the electricity to directly charge an EV, the efficiency figure looks even smaller. But, the outright advantage in range and refuelling time does make it a good proposition, and in future, we could see a good mix of BEVs as well as FCEVs deployed al over the world, with people choosing their kind of EV based on their needs.