MUNICH (Reuters) - BMW will roll out the world's first hydrogen-burning car in serial production early next year, the German premium automaker said on Tuesday, eager to put its stamp on cars with green credentials.
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The specially equipped 7-Series executive cars emit only water vapor when running on hydrogen.
The car hits the market next April and will be shown at the Los Angeles car show in November, the company said. It had said in March the hydrogen cars would arrive within two years.
A spokesman said the car would be leased to selected customers rather than sold because of its high price. Leasing rates would be similar to those for a top-end BMW 760LI with a full-service package.
The BMW 7 Series Hydrogen 7 Saloon is powered by a 260 hp twelve-cylinder engine and accelerates from 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 9.5 seconds. Top speed is limited electronically to 230 km/h.
BMW has said it intends to build a few hundred such cars at first. They will be able to switch between burning standard petrol and hydrogen so that drivers will not be left stranded while the infrastructure to deliver hydrogen is built up.
"The integration of hydrogen drive in an existing vehicle concept which has already proven its merits in the market paves the way for an alternative to conventional drive concepts fully accepted in the market and with all the assets the customer is looking for in practice," BMW said.
The space that two fuel tanks take up means only the 7-Series will offer the hydrogen package at first. BMW's long-term goal is to offer hydrogen motors in all its cars.
BMW unveiled the world's fastest hydrogen-powered car at the 2004 Paris auto show. Dubbed the H2R, it can exceed 300 kilometers (185 miles) per hour and reaches 100 km per hour from a standing start in around six seconds.
While BMW is developing fuel-cell driven cars as well, it says it is concentrating on the combustion engine because the sum total of its features and characteristics offers the largest number of advantages and benefits all in one. [Reply]
Originally Posted by kcgreene:
First thing I see when looking up Blue Hydrogen (which I will admit, I hadn't even heard of until you brought it up) is a report on the DoE website discussing how it's not clean, ineffective, and more pollutant than electric because of the process used in isolating it from CO2.
That being said, common sense states that burning fossil fuels is much more polluting, so it sounds like to me more that the US Automakers have invested so much into electric, that a shift to hydrogen would burn them up.
That being said (in my albeit limited knowledge on the matter), barring we can find an effective avenue of successfully gathering and harnessing Helium-3, it does seem Hydrogen is the best path in the status quo.
The DOE is full of shit because they judge the entire Blue Hydrogen ecosystem but NOT the entire EV ecosystem. [Reply]
Oh great, LA will turn into a tropical rain forest with all the water vapor emissions. There are stilll a lot problems (isn't hydrogen produced by fossil fuels plants?), but keep at it, egg heads [Reply]
My question with hydrogen (blue or not :-) )is what is the impact of all that water vapor exhaust? Will all the major cities be under clouds forever if everyone is using hydrogen? [Reply]
Originally Posted by scho63:
The DOE is full of shit because they judge the entire Blue Hydrogen ecosystem but NOT the entire EV ecosystem.
Oh I dont disagree (hence the line after being about the automotive industry's interests in the matter). I just thought it was entertaining that was the first thing that came up and that common sense dictates otherwise.
Now, what piques my interest though is if we could find a reliable and efficient way to harness Helium-3 to run everything (but I probably won't see it in my lifetime)!!!
But yeah, I tend to agree with you that Hydrogen right now looks to be the best avenue for a sustainable energy future. [Reply]
Originally Posted by scho63:
Either of you ever heard of blue hydrogen?
Read up, you might learn something.
It is NOT flammable in the same way pure hydrogen is. The hydrogen is created at the engine.
It is still hydrogen and is highly flammable.
It doesn't matter if it is Blue, Green, Pink, etc.... All the colors define is how the hydrogen was isolated. All hydrogen is highly flammable. [Reply]
Hydrogen is widely available at every welding supply store. There are thousands or them nationwide. I wonder if they will be wise enough to set up filling stations. Currently the govt doesn’t tax the shit out of but that will change. It is the hottest burning fuel in common use. The bottles are armor plate steel and the only danger is the valve area where the gas is released. It’ll never happen though across the board. The oil industry will fight it tooth and nail. :-)
We have used a hydrogen torch at school, it’s quite safe and super efficient. Hydrogen can be sourced from many things including water. Some people are running vehicles on it already. Interesting video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E23aqCQHr6U [Reply]
Originally Posted by Hydrae:
My question with hydrogen (blue or not :-) )is what is the impact of all that water vapor exhaust? Will all the major cities be under clouds forever if everyone is using hydrogen?
