"Will the battery last to the top?" is the question that every ambitious e-mountain biker asks themselves before setting off on their tour. Because everyone knows that an e-bike with an empty battery is as much fun as a rucksack full of stones. If you're lucky and can recharge somewhere, then it's better to be prepared for a longer break until the battery is reasonably full.
Neither will happen with the Alpha Mountain Rider. But this bike has other problems. But let's start from the beginning: the French-made pedelec is also powered by an electric motor. However, it is not powered by an electric battery, but by a hydrogen fuel cell. The technology is old, dating back to the time when horse-drawn carriages gradually became cars. Put simply, hydrogen and oxygen react with each other in the fuel cell to generate electricity and water vapor.
The advantage of the hydrogen bike: with a reasonably sized tank, it can easily travel twice as far as a standard e-bike with a fully charged battery. In addition, recharging only takes a few minutes. But recharging is a tricky business. As of 2018, there are just two filling stations in Switzerland that offer gaseous hydrogen for fuel cells.

Black swans on two wheels

Pragma Industries, the manufacturer of the Alpha Mountain Rider, is therefore offering the fuel pump at the same time. The offer to bike rental companies: 10 bikes at 7500 euros each plus a hydrogen filling station at 75,000 euros. With entry costs of 150,000 euros, this package is likely to have a tough start on the open market.
Incidentally, there are already a few cars with fuel cells on our roads (e.g. from Toyota and Hyundai). In Germany, the news channel N-TV identified 210 such cars, compared to 45 million cars with combustion engines. The four-wheeled fuel cell vehicles also score points with their range and short charging time. However, they suffer from a very extensive network of filling stations and high unit costs, as they are not yet produced in large numbers.
Nevertheless, you are more likely to see a Toyota Mirai or a Hyundai Nexo in the near future than an Alpha Mountain Rider, which was unveiled in mid-January at the CES consumer technology trade fair in Las Vegas. No such vehicle had been delivered at that time.