Would you exercise for an hour every day if the workout powered your home for twenty-four hours? In the world, where electricity is one of the most pervasive problems, where half of the world’s population has no access to it, Manoj Bhargava, an India-American billionaire philanthropist unveiled a new Free Electric bicycle on Friday that can generate electricity when pedalled and help rural households meet their energy needs.  With his invention, it is possible to generate electricity at home while simply doing a daily workout routine.

“When an individual pedals the bike, the action drives a flywheel, which spins a generator that charges the attached battery,” Mr Bhargava said while unveiling the product. Priced at between Rs 12,000 – 15,000, the bicycle will be available in the market by March next year. Mr Bhargava said he will first start selling the product in Uttarakhand and later target rest of the domestic market. “One hour of pedalling can meet a rural household’s electricity needs for 24 hours, including running lights, a small fan and charging a cell phone, all without electricity bills, fuel costs or pollution,” Mr Bhargava added.

Manoj Bhargava’s Inspiration – A Nascar Race

Bhargava said the idea for the unique bicycle came to him while he was watching a Nascar race on TV, the popular American car racing event when he saw a man push a pump, which propelled a jack to lift a car. He said, “The car moved so fast that it nearly flipped. I was surprised that such a motion could propel a jack so fast. Then, I asked my innovators to work on it. They tried the pumping function, but it did not work. We worked on the product for a while, and at first the product turned out too heavy. We then worked to strip it off the unnecessary parts.”

Having access to clean, free energy will enable poverty-stricken communities to not only light their homes but to connect to the internet and get educated. Bhargava says the reason the majority of those who are poor stay poor is because they have no power. He aims to fix this with the free electricity bicycle.

Manoj Bhargava is the founder of the company that makes the popular energy-boosting supplement 5-hour Energy. As part of State 2 Innovations, the inventions wing of his ventures, Bhargava has also produced a water purification machine that cleans even seawater to drinking water and another project which uses graphene cables to harness earth’s heat to produce electricity.

Bhargava has pledged 90% of his wealth to charity and research, saying, “Service to others seems the only intelligent choice for the use of wealth. The other choices especially personal consumption, seem either useless or harmful.” Bhargava also founded the Billions in Change movement, which aims “to build a better future by creating and implementing solutions to serious problems facing the world in the areas of water, energy and health.” Mr Bhargava also supports The Hans Foundation, one of the largest charitable organisations in India.