Just when you thought hydrogen power was slipping down the zero-emission agenda, back it comes. BMW has today announced a few more technical details on the fruits of its long-running partnership with Toyota. The new 374hp powerplant mixes fuel-cell technology with a more conventional battery system. The tailpipe-free hardware includes two 700-bar tanks which can hold six kilograms of hydrogen, while a 'peak power' battery provides boosts of energy for added performance.
By mixing these two systems together - the battery side being plucked straight from the new iX3 - BMW reckons demands for both urban and long-distance drivers can be met in one package. More significantly than that, it means that using the peak performance ought to have a much smaller effect on range than in today's EVs, a feature that ought to help appease those yet to be won over by non-ICE forms of private transport.
This tech isn't far off, either, with BMW stating that it'll reach the road in an X5 model in just two years; although the manufacturer conceded that it'll be low volume and, presumably, be part of the development phase rather than a full on-market model. That stage could come only two or three years later, with BMW stating that a fully-fledged customer car powered by its hydrogen fuel cell technology "will be brought to market at the earliest in the second half of this decade". That looks set to put the marque and Toyota at the front of the hydrogen race.
BMW reckons hydrogen power is best suited to heavier vehicles; indeed, it's most likely applications in the future include HGVs and commercial vehicles. But it's the use of this technology - which takes advantage of the chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen from the ambient air - in SUVs that has BMW excited. Because in one fell swoop it adheres to market demand while also maintaining progress in the elimination of road transport emissions. That's significant, not least because SUV demand shows no sign of slowing. And hydrogen tank fill ups are already, according to BMW, only a "three to four-minute" process.
The biggest challenge to all this is, of course, infrastructure - or the lack of it. Europe's hydrogen network is barely in its infancy. BMW and Toyota have long been pushing for a bigger roll out of hydrogen stations, but until the stations are there the focus will have to remain on plug-powered EVs. As such, of BMW's 25 new models due for launch by 2023, at least a dozen are to be fully electric. And don't expect hydrogen power to explode in use after that, because the cost of building sites capable of storing the liquid fuel is high, as is the price of bringing the powertrain tech to market. But that's what we said about battery tech only last decade. The wheels are certainly in motion.
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