Metropolitan Police in London (the UK one, not the Ontario one) have started testing hydrogen-fueled Suzuki Burgman scooters.
The trial is 18 months long, and will involve seven scooters with onboard hydrogen fuel cells. They’ll be ridden by Community Support officers, presumably because the British bobbies aren’t keen on the idea of a hydrogen-powered scooter being involved in a crash during a speedy chase.
The hydrogen fuel cells have a 120-km range, and will be refueled a private station. The scooters will have zero carbon emissions, thanks to their alternative powerplant. Given the UK government’s planned crackdown on gasoline-powered engines, it makes sense for the coppers to start investigating options like this.
Suzuki has already started testing these machines in its Japanese home market; the Metropolitan Police are the first foreign-market customers to participate in testing. Honda and Yamaha are also experimenting with alternative-energy scooters, although their electric bike-sharing project is a little less dramatic. Make no mistake: whether or not motorcyclists want it, a future without an emphasis gasoline-powered engines is approaching.
700 bars is very high pressure!!
wonder how many kg of H2 can it be filled?
Let’s call it the Suzuki Hindenburg
Make that Hindenburgman
To get 120km, they’re going to have to compress that hydrogen gas in a pressure vessel. You don’t want to see that get hit in traffic: It’ll go boom. Should that be still a “Suzuki Burgman” or should it be renamed to the “Suzuki HitMeAndLaunchACop”?
I imagine the officer sitting on top of it is a brave volunteer and gets a round of applause every morning. “Be careful out there!”