Masterflex to Work on Fuel Cell Bicycles

COLOGNE, Germany (September 28) - Gelsenkirchen-based Masterflex and the leading Swiss electric-Bike manufacturer Swizzbee recently signed a cooperation agreement at the IFMA, the international bike trade show in Cologne. The two companies will cooperate in future in the area of fuel cell bikes for personal transport. Masterflex will develop a special fuel cell system to power the current Swizzbee 50c bike. In this context, the prototypes exhibited at the Hanover Messe 2004 represent a key milestone in the development of fuel cell bikes. The aim of the cooperation is to develop electric bikes powered by fuel cells for market launch. Electric bikes powered by fuel cells can travel substantially further (up to 250km) than conventional electric bikes, thus enabling completely new applications. In the coming year, their use in practice will be tested extensively using a joint test fleet. After this test phase, the aim is to distribute the fuel cell bikes via Swizzbee's existing European distributor network. Thanks to the innovative product, the two companies are hopeful of capturing a substantial market share of the estimated 95,000 electric bikes sold in Europe (15 member states) in the past year.(MH)