Segway has revealed the first details of a forthcoming hydrogen-electric motorbike named Apex H2.
The H2 follows hot on the heals of Segway's first Apex street bike/sportsbike concept. There is an excellent article about the original 200 km/h Apex working prototype, including photos and video of it performing hot laps here at Electrek. Segway NZ's Philip Bendall sat on this Apex in Beijing in 2019, and took a series of photographs (see later in this article).
Now, lets get back to discussing our Tron-inspired Light Cycle motorcycling future. New Atlas has an excellent article analysing what is known about the forthcoming Segway Apex H2, saying:
Now, there's an Apex H2 coming, which will run a hydrogen-electric hybrid powertrain – gaseous hydrogen stored in tanks will be converted into electrical energy through a fuel cell and fed into a buffer battery, which will power an electric motor that drives the rear wheel in some way or another – we can't see whether there's a chain drive or a hub motor or what indeed is going on in these renders. Yes, that's an exhaust port in front of the rear wheel, but all that'll be coming out of it is water vapor.
The Segway Apex H2 will feature an impressive sub-4 second launch from 0-100 km/h, 60kW power output and a top speed of 150 km/h.
Once the rider has squeezed the last of the molecules out of the on-board hydrogen tank and through the fuel cell, and the final electrons from the battery pack, refuelling is achieved by swapping out the empty H2 capsule with a full one. Alternatively, an empty capsule can be refilled at around the same speed as refilling a petrol bike. Today, Hydrogen refilling capacity is limited at present to a few places in California, Japan, and (presumably) China too. On the other hand, Hydrogen offers a way forward for electric vehicles because it offers an energy storage density much higher than Lithium. For a high-performance bikes such as the Apex H2 it is being speculated that a hydrogen fuel cell approach will offer longer range between fuel stops compared with Lithium storage batteries.
Further inspiration from the Light Cycles featured in the Tron movies include "floating" wheels. From the right side, the the front and rear wheels of the Apex H2 look like they're disconnected from the bike and are floating on air, thanks to a single-sided front swingarm and hidden monoshock arrangement, to match the single-sided swingarm at the back. According to an opinion at Jalopink.com:
Connecting the front wheel using a swingarm is unusual and only a few motorcycles like the Bimota TESI 3D, Yamaha GTS1000 and Vyrus 985 have a similar design. Operationally, it shares some of its moves with the BMW Telelever and the double-wishbone front end of the latest Honda Gold Wing.
All this futuristic styling and powertrain is said to be available in the near future - for under US $11,000...
That's right - Segway says the first Apex H2's will be delivered in 2023, following a successful launch campaign to raise 99 initial orders.
From the original Tron movie (1982) through to the 210 sequel Tron: Legacy, many imaginations have been inspired by the radical design of the Light Cycles featured in those movies (and in the subsequent cartoon series Tron: Uprising set between them).
Segway's interest in motorcycles goes back a long way. During the late-2000's there was a secret in-house development program code-named Steeldust. Very few people knew about this project.
Distributors and Dealers were shown design sketches and a short video of a working Steeldust prototype that featured dual hub motors front and rear. Aimed at the urban commuter market, Steeldust was conceived as a cool, futuristic electric motor scooter (or moped) - ideal for busy urban centres - and intended to be desirable in those places where petrol equivalents were already popular (i.e. European and Asian citys, less so in America).
Segway's pioneering use of dual hub motors would provide for super-quick acceleration, very strong anti-skid braking force, and other safety features simply unobtainable in any petrol scooter of the day. Further, the intrinsic benefits of this very same layout could be mapped onto a form suitable as a farm/utility bike....which was exactly the format the New Zealand company UBCO Bikes would adopt a decade later with their range of farm/utility bikes (and subsequent road-legal variants).
Whilst Steeldust was never developed into a commercial product, Segway's interest in zero-emission motorcycles continued to advance. Spectacular, world-beating success soon followed with a string of wins at the world's most famous motorcycle race - The Isle of Man TT.
A new TT Zero race category for electric motorbikes was launched in 2010.
Team Motoczycz's first won the TT Zero in 2010, and by the following year Segway had become the key sponsor and contributed key technologies to Motoczycz leading to further wins at the TT Zero competitions in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Each year of wins was achieved with ever-increasing speeds. Here is an excerpt from our Segway NZ News article (as linked above):
A look at the year-on-year improvements in average speed in this one-lap race around the island’s 37.7 mile Snaefell Mountain Course show how rapidly improvements are being made:
2010: 96.8 mph / 155.8 kph
2011: 98.6 mph / 158.7 kph
2012: 104.0 mph / 167.5 kph
2013: 109.7 mph / 176.4 5ph
For more information about the details, technology and results of Segway's series of successes at Isle of Man TT Zero see our four articles from 2011 to 2013:
12 November 2011: TT Zero 2012 on Isle of Man
5 June 2012: Team Segway MotoCsysz the favourite at Isle of Man TT Zero
6 June 2012: History made today as Team Segway beats 100mph at TT Zero on Isle of Man
5 June 2013: TT Zero 2013: Motoczysz wins electric motorbike race 4th year in a row
The original Apex was a working prototype, and is on display at Segway-Ninebot's HQ in Beijing. While we wait for further details about the Apex H2, here are a series of photographs of the original Apex taken by Philip Bendall during a visit to China in 2019.
