BMW Hydrogen 7 is unveiled as first for luxury performance space

While plenty of car manufacturers have been working hard to bring hydrogen-based vehicles to the everyman, it seems BMW has been taking an alternate tact, and instead got bizzy squeezing a hydrogen drive into a 7 Series model. The car's engine can run on either hydrogen or gasoline, and includes tanks for both. You can manage around 124 miles on hydrogen and an additional 311 miles on gasoline, which should cut down on the whole "stranded in the middle of nowhere since there aren't enough hydrogen stations yet" situation. Performance is passable, at 0-62mph in 9.5 seconds, but this ain't no Tesla. The switch between power sources is performed automatically at the push of a button, and the car will be produced in a limited series for selected users, meaning you probably won't even have a shot at one. All the same, it's good to see alterna-fuel vehicles getting so close to reality -- and BMW seems convinced that in reality, the future won't just play host to compact boringcars.

[Luke @ Dec 4th 2006 12:41PM]

switch between power sources is performed automatically...... At the push of a button???

So is that like.. really automatic?

[lUp @ Dec 4th 2006 12:47PM]

to add something.

to generate one kilogram of liquid hydrogen, there's a lot of energy needed to either compress it or to cool it to -250-ish degrees centigrade. And as the BMW only uses the hydrogen like normal gasoline, the added cost in cooling down/compressing the hydrogen results in an effectiv energy consumption of about 25-30 L/100km normal gasoline.

So this all so lovely enviromental friendly car with its "green" engine is in fact worse than every big V8 hemi in american muscle cars.

[SmartAlx @ Dec 4th 2006 1:17PM]

Ever clean up a messy room/garage/house? It gets even WORSE during the initial stages of the cleanup. But once things start getting organized the results can be extraordinary.

What's great about this BMW is not that it is *CURRENTLY* more green (which it obviously isn't). What's great is that it paves the way for the H2 economy. It generates demand for future development. More demand equates to more money for better technology in the future. And the technology in the future WILL be MUCH more green than the greenest alternatives today.

Furthermore, H2 can be produced at a single point so emissions can be controlled more easily. It's far more difficult to control emissions on the vehicle.

We can't get to a greener H2 economy without a difficult transitional stage.

[sublicon @ Dec 4th 2006 1:06PM]

damnit, Luke - you stole my line!!

[Mystic @ Dec 4th 2006 1:19PM]

Hydrogen. What a waste. Just another way for corporations to control your fuel. Stick with electric and electric hybrids that you can plug in at home.

[davelog @ Dec 4th 2006 4:21PM]

And just where do you think THAT electricity comes from, Mystic?

[TexRob @ Dec 4th 2006 1:46PM]

Please please please tell me this was a joke:

"Hydrogen. What a waste. Just another way for corporations to control your fuel. Stick with electric and electric hybrids that you can plug in at home."

If not, well, I won't explain why it's so damn funny. Anyone with half a brain will know why.

[Lorenzo @ Dec 4th 2006 2:05PM]

Nope! Definitely not a joke. Some people are just born morons.

[msapoz1 @ Dec 4th 2006 2:23PM]

haha exactly.

[CharlieX @ Dec 4th 2006 2:10PM]

Wow... this is yesterday's news. These cars are already on the street in LA - they gave them to high profile people that would "be seen"

[codeSuidae @ Dec 4th 2006 3:22PM]

I love the idea of electric vehicles, and I'm not so crazy about hydrogen (I prefer battery/capacitor electric because of the ability to charge from your own sources), but aren't most of the hydrogen designs aimed at electric vehicles via hydrogen fuel cells? Instead of cramming all the electric power into a huge battery pack you generate it as you need it from the fuel cell.

A big advantage of central hydrogen production over plug-in hybreds is that it is not necessary to distribute the (considerable) power for the vehicle fleet via the already-strained electrical grid. Instead, the power is generated close to where the hydrogen is generated, eliminating the electrical transmission losses and demand on the power grid.

It would be nice to have a hybred vehicle with sufficent battery capacity for short trips (30 miles or so)and a hydrogen fuel cell for longer trips. This would allow many people to use the vehicle as a plug-in hybred for commuting without requiring them to have a hydrogen fuel station nearby.

[Nelg @ Dec 5th 2006 2:27AM]

There is no possible way this is more enviroment-friendly or less fuel-consuming on this planet. Apparently hydrogen is now used as a buzzword to make dumb people think they are helping the planet, while paying more to the fuel producers.

Hydrogen is practically free, it's the most basic element ffs, and what do you think the compressed hydrogen will cost? How much do you think BMW or the producer, which is probably in co-operation with BMW, will draw money with it?
"It's okay, it's more 'green', there's nothing wrong with few extra bucks."
The reason why we don't have any cars running on tapwater is that extracting hydrogen and compressing it takes more energy than it gives.

Even hybrids fail as concepts, although I give credit for the good intentions. We will not make any progress with making half-ass concepts that draw even more energy. I'm a bit ashamed that this an Europan car company, I thought we'd had better ideas (than Hummer O2).

If I'm wrong at any point, please correct me.

[uno @ Dec 6th 2006 8:55PM]

I agree with texrob and then lets not discuss battery construction either.

[Israel L @ Dec 9th 2006 8:57PM]

Guys, think of hydrogen as an energy carrier, like a battery. But unlike batteries, you can refill tanks quickly. Unlike batteries, you're not left with some mega polluting lead-acid or Lithium cells. Those make H2 both more practical for vehicle use and lower polluting than electics/battery. But like electric vehicles, you still need to input energy to fill the batteries or create "burnable" H2, and neither elecrtic nor H2 pollute where you use them. So both keep urban areas clean. Like electricity, you can generate "burnable" H2 from a variety of fuels (coal, solar, wind, etc. Heck, you can even use electricity), but we know that the energy distribution and refueling model (i.e. fuel stations)scales to support a whole country, while pure electric may have additional complications in both rural and high desitity areas. Keep in mind that Google et al are building their datacenters near electrical generation plants because electical distribution is so problematic. The fact that the 7 is dual fuel (H2 and gas) capable makes it a great transitional technology: 0 local emissions where H2 is available, and gasoline to use until H2 is more available. Priuses (pri-eye?) are going to put dump a huge numbers of polluting batteries in a few years. Oh, and they look really stupid.

[awipf @ Dec 20th 2006 9:11AM]

I found a community site called Clubofpioneers.com which has some answers to the clean energy initiative by BMW. Check it out.

http://www.clubofpioneers.com

[Stephan @ Jan 30th 2007 6:30AM]

I found two vids of people actually driving the car:

The guys from xolo.tv: http://watchme.xolo.tv/index.php?tag=clubofpioneers

and Ben Goldhirsch (from Goodmagazine): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RD02CpflDA

and it really can switch from hydrogen to gasoline at the push of a button... perfect for introducing the H2 infrastructure.