If you’re still grappling with the notion that motorcycles will be mandated to run on electricity in just over a decade’s time, then prepare for another shock to the culture system… meet the Segway Apex H2.
What you are looking at here is quite a remarkable motorcycle, regardless of whatever views you may have on alternative fuel, since the Segway Apex H2 comes with a powertrain fuelled by both electricity and hydrogen.
Not only that though, as futuristic as it may look, this is in fact a production-ready model. And the best bit, it wears a price tag of 69,999 Chinese Yuan. That’s just under £8,000 like for like!
OK, so we’ve got your attention. Unlike most ambitious Chinese motorcycle companies, Segway is of course a very recognisable brand on these shores, even if its British origins producing the clever, but not exactly cool two-wheeled ‘self-balancing transporter’ don’t exactly conjure the most obvious association with the Apex H2.
That’s because the company and naming rights are now owned by Beijing-based robotics company Ninebot, which is expanding its urban mobility options and utilising the Segway moniker to front its efforts.
Segway has previously launched an electric-version of the Apex, back in 2019, which was a pure EV. However, it has since gone back to the drawing board to get even more ambitious with this update, announcing in April 2021 that it would be an electric-hydrogen hybrid.
While hydrogen has been touted by a few big names recently, most notably Kawasaki, it is Segway that will hit the market first in 2023 with the Apex H2. For now we only have official performance figures to go on, which means a 93mph top speed and a 0-62mph sprint in just four seconds. There is no word on range, but Segway says it will burn 1g of hydrogen per kilometre.
At the very least the Segway Apex H2 not only stays faithful to April’s concept [pictured above] - in fact, it’s almost unchanged - but it does so in an eye-catching but not entirely over the top way.
With its Knight Rider-esque wraparound tube headlight, sportsbike proportions, evident but smartly integrated faired battery pack and floating rear seat, the Apex H2 is quite a looker in our eyes.
We even like the unashamed exposed hydrogen canister that doubles as a Tron-like shroud for the handlebars, while it is the most obvious application of wheel trims on a motorcycle since the Gilera CX-125.
While Segway deserves full marks for not only sticking to its vision by bringing hydrogen to the market, it still faces the hurdle - outside of China at least - of appealing elsewhere where the infrastructure for the gas is limited.
Indeed, with companies and governments stuck in a cycle of ‘chicken and egg’ - in that hydrogen fuelling points won’t be built until more hydrogen vehicles are made, but more won’t be made until more refuelling points are installed etc etc etc… - it could take a while for hydrogen to ‘blow up’, so to speak…
Then again, they said this about electric once upon a time too...
