What do you see when you look at this video?
For those unfamiliar, the Kawasaki Hydrogen ICE bike is based on the existing H2 SX platform, a fact that anyone familiar with the regular combustion version of that bike can probably quite readily see just by looking at it. It's something that makes a lot of sense from a development perspective, allowing Team Green to hit the ground running and concentrate on the changes that matter.
And also, H2 is molecular hydrogen. Please don't forget the pun. It's very important.
It's an amazing accomplishment, to be sure. What Kawasaki has done is impressive, particularly if you're the kind of nerd who really enjoys seeing new technologies get their bearings. If you're the kind of person who accepts that even if it doesn't completely go the way anyone expects, it's still someone trying something new, and taking a bit of a risk.
I mean, that's kind of what powersports is, isn't it? Trying something new, and taking a bit of a risk. So it should be pretty relatable on that level, regardless of how technically inclined you are.
But the trouble is, H2 (the element) takes up a lot of space. Compression, just like when you or I eat too many pies, can only do so much.
And thus, Kawasaki's Hydrogen ICE H2-squared bike also must, by necessity, take up a lot of space. So much space, in fact, that from the back and overhead views, the shape of this bike resembles nothing so much as a colorblock rocketship out of a colorful, illustrated children's book.
To be clear, the Kawasaki Hydrogen bike is a test mule. Nowhere has Kawasaki intimated that this bike is anything but, nor that it's anywhere close to becoming any kind of production bike. For the moment, it's a proof-of-concept, and a place to begin evolving future hydrogen two-wheeler technologies, if this is indeed a route that Kawasaki intends to continue pursuing.
At the same time, because it's Kawasaki, there's nothing visually half-finished or rough-looking about it. Even the early first images of the bike, before Kawasaki was ready to show it running in front of an audience, had a visibly complete look about them. The colors and graphics were carefully applied, the hydrogen canisters on the back perfectly integrated to flesh out the overall shape of the bike. And it's a pleasing shape, to be sure.
There are so many questions I have, though. Weight is one. Range and power are two more. Those hydrogen canisters are massive, but how far will they get you? Infrastructure is, of course, the big one. The Japanese automotive industry is collectively in the midst of a massive hydrogen-powered vehicle development push, and the Japanese government has infrastructure projects underway to make such development practical in the country.
But can or will that succeed anywhere else? From the piecemeal and haphazard way that EV infrastructure has been adopted in the countries where it's slowly been making inroads, that's not entirely clear.
And questions about truly sourcing 'clean' hydrogen also remain, because the whole point of this exercise is reducing, neutralizing, and/or eliminating carbon emissions where it's possible. If all the hydrogen being used to power these things is sourced in a way that's still polluting, it would become a meaningless (though still technologically impressive) exercise.
Still, no one ever got anywhere by standing still, so good on Kawasaki for moving forward in its hydrogen-powered rocketship.
