[Brett66]

A multi-fuel/flexible-fuel engine would be revolutionary, especially if it could run on water. Even if it got 1 mpg that would be far cheaper than gasoline and it wouldn't even require a refined product. If you ran out of fuel you wouldn't need anything but a pond to refuel. I still don't understand the hype over the scooter part unless it was a poorly written article by a technically illiterate journalist that didn't understand the implications of the power source.

[eno_]

No, that's the whole thing: No free lunch. It cannot be fueled by water. You need a source of electric power to extract hydrogen from water. But if you could ferment your grass clippings and make fuel, now you have something. External combustion, like a Sterling engine, can use "junk" fuel, like unrefined biomass. That would be cheap and diffuse enough to change energy economics. Imagine China and India with near-first-world mobility for the people, but without increasing demand for oil. If you wanted to use it in an enclosed space, you would have to go for a completely clean fuel like hydrogen. But that is more for the wheelchair than for this scooter.