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BMW – the forerunner and leader in hydrogen drive technology.
As a particularly innovative, strategically oriented car maker, BMW has been quick to assume responsibility for the promotion and introduction of sustained mobility concepts. Reflecting the Company’s traditional core competence in
drive train technology, BMW started as early as in 1978 to conduct research on the hydrogen power unit, consistently developing and upgrading this technology with several generations of hydrogen cars in the years to come.
In the year 2000 BMW became the world’s first car maker to present a demonstration fleet of hydrogen-drive cars at the Expo 2000 World Fair in Hanover, Germany. In the meantime, the BMW 750hL hydrogen car has proven its merits under practical testing conditions, clearly and impressively confirming the feasibility of this technology. And during the CleanEnergy World Tour, the BMW Group was once again able to gain significant international attention concerning hydrogen technology and its great potential.
The world’s first public hydrogen filling station, opened at Munich Airport in 2000, again made a significant contribution in testing and improving the everyday qualities of this innovative drive technology. Indeed, the experience already gained at the time by the BMW Group, fuel supply companies and the operators of the filling station at Munich Airport has significantly influenced and promoted ongoing development within the CEP initiative.
This experience has also been used, inter alia, in the concept of the hydrogen filling stations now operating in Berlin, where BMW Group test cars have been filled with hydrogen regularly ever since. Operation of the world’s first public hydrogen filling station will be ending in 2006 when it is replaced by the new integrated filling station in Munich.
BMW Hydrogen 7: paving the way into the future.
With the launch of the BMW Hydrogen 7, the BMW Group is opening up a new era for the development of automobiles with alternative drive technologies: The BMW Hydrogen 7 is not the result of a research project, but has successfully completed the entire Product Development Process (PDP) obligatory for all new BMWs.
In this process all components of the new technology were integrated
into the overall vehicle according to the same criteria applied to “regular” production cars. The BMW Hydrogen 7 has reached a level of development significantly beyond the status of all hydrogen prototypes and demonstration cars built so far and allowing homologation under the usual rules and standards in both Germany and the ECE.
The knowledge gained in the Product Development Process has not only made a decisive contribution to the driving qualities of the
BMW Hydrogen 7, but has also had a positive effect on the features and qualities of all individual components. In the Product Development Process
every component as well as the overall vehicle is analyzed and checked to the smallest detail determining whether the vehicle meets the requirements of series production.
Representing the firm features in the Product Development Process, the individual process steps of Development, Testing, Clearance and Signing-Off guarantee the high standards demands of a BMW Group vehicle.
Being introduced as the first hydrogen luxury performance sedan, the BMW Hydrogen 7 is a milestone – and at the same time it introduces a new era in car production. The knowledge gained in developing the car will
have a significant influence on the development and production of future hydrogen car concepts, with the principle of dual-mode drive as well
as the features of other components now going through the strict test of everyday driving practice.
Liquid hydrogen – the energy of the future.
Ever since the start of research and development in this area, the BMW Group has given preference to the use of liquid hydrogen as the appropriate source of energy for the automobile. Compared with gaseous and highly compressed hydrogen, liquid, cryogenic hydrogen offers much higher energy density.
And comparing the amount of energy stored in a tank of the same size as cryogenic, liquid hydrogen as opposed to a car tank with gaseous hydrogen compressed to 700 bar, we see that liquid hydrogen has the advantage of offering 75 per cent more energy. Clearly, therefore, a vehicle running on liquid hydrogen has a correspondingly longer cruising range with all the practical benefits involved.
Dual-mode combustion engine for enhanced flexibility.
The practical cruising range offered by a car is one of the most important criteria in judging the everyday qualities of a new drive concept. But apart from consumption figures and the tank capacity in a car, we must also consider the existing fuel supply infrastructure.
There is not currently a full network of hydrogen filling stations. Vehicles running on hydrogen alone can only be used within certain limits on public roads, not offering the flexibility naturally expected by the user.
For precisely this reason the BMW Group, introducing the world’s first hydrogen luxury performance car, is opting for dual-mode drive technology, with the combustion engine of the BMW Hydrogen 7 being capable of running on both hydrogen and gasoline.
The cruising range of the car in the hydrogen mode is more than
200 kilometres or 125 miles, with another 500 kilometres or 300 miles in the gasoline mode. As a result, the driver of the BMW Hydrogen 7 benefits from virtually unlimited mobility and is able to use the vehicle even when far away from the nearest hydrogen filling station.
Dual-mode drive technology – the key to everyday motoring.
The prerequisite for permanent use of hydrogen as a source of energy is a closely-knit network of hydrogen filling stations. On the other hand there
will only be an incentive to build additional filling stations when a significant demand potential for vehicles with hydrogen drive develops in the market.
This is why BMW Hydrogen 7 is destined to become a pacemaker for progress on both levels. It now generates the momentum required for expanding the right fuel supply infrastructure, ultimately benefiting those car makers focusing exclusively on single-mode hydrogen technology.
Once the number of hydrogen filling stations increases accordingly, these vehicles will also become more attractive, single-mode hydrogen vehicles
then offering the same everyday driving qualities and practical benefits the BMW Hydrogen 7 is already able to prove today.
Opting for this dual-mode drive concept, the BMW Group is consciously acting as a pacemaker. Indeed, this commitment to set standards not only to the benefit of the own customers, but also to the advantage of an
entire world of technology, is part of the responsibility the BMW Group is happy to assume in our modern world.
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