BMW & Liquid Hydrogen

The battle for the next frontier in fueling tomorrow's vehicles is on and the great BMW car company is not to be ignored. So BMW announced that its going to have a road-ready hydrogen-based car hit the deck in its well known 7 series model sometime in late 2007. In fact, its does not run entirely on liquid hydrogen. In fact, its a hybrid. The car will retain a gasoline tank. More exciting than this market version is BMW's true hydrogen -experiment car, the H2R, which is not a hybrid. The 2 cars boldly signal BMW's bet on liquid hydrogen as a major energy source in the future. And why not? Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe, it can be recycled, its emissions are far less polluting and hydrogen, unlike Ethanol, burns faster and at a lower temperature than gasoline (which I assume means the same thing as generating more power). All of this is an easy peasy sell. We need to take note of liquid hydrogen as a serious contender in the field of energy exploration.

Real quick, liquid hydrogen is a combustable fuel like gasoline. Fuel cells, in contrast, work more like car batteries. A fuel cell, also based on hydrogen, is put through a chemical reaction and electric power is generated to drive the vehicle.

Given liquid hydrogen's potency it can pass up as a little disappointing that BMW's Hydrogen 7 will carry an alternative gasoline fuel tank (probably to keep it marketable as access to liquid hydrogen will continue to be scarce), its 6.0L V-12 engine will only churn out 256 bhp and will accelerate 0-60mph in a lame 9 seconds. But its too harsh to criticize such inadequacies in light of the 1st marketable car that can run on liquid hydrogen. In fact, in that light it should be considered impressive. If only Tesla Motor Company had not spoiled the psychology by launching its inaugral all-electric car that electricutes the 0-60mpg accleleration criteria in 4 seconds! This is also where a luxury auto-makers are disadvantaged in the market. BMW will struggle where Toyota succeeds with its Prius, Honda could with its fuel-cell FCX (expected in 2008) and Chevrolet could too with the fuel-cells version of the Equinox SUV(also for 2008). The luxury auto-maker will be pricing the car out of reach for a market mass that is more willing to buy green experimental cars. The 7 series decision is also surprising. I would have gone for the 3 series. At least it has better price reach, a lot of young people strive to own one and the young are more ready to buy the new. But, its possible that technicals may be too tough right now to fit all the components of a liquid hydrogen car into a compact frame. The liquid hydrgen has to be maintained at 420 degrees below zero which must require some serious hardware in the car. The BMW Hydrogen 7 will reach an impressive 143mph.

But any disappointment from the Hydrogen 7 will quickly be run over by BMW H2R. The real eye-catcher and hydrogen gem. Its rocket like appearance is not deceiving. This baby also sports a 6.0L V-12 engine but will achieve the 0 -60mph in a far more respectable 6 seconds and will go on to a whopping top speed of 187mph. All of it on liquid hydrogen. The experiment car does much better to win hearts.

Like other major combustable alternative fuel of Ethanol, liquid hydrogen would suffer from the same challenge of if it will ever earn enough faith and luck for investment in a large enough fuel delivery infrastructure that is also profitable. At least one thing seems to be fairly obvious: Hydrogen won't require exploration. It is abundantly available which itself should give it a huge upper hand on cost. An exciting source and one that comes out on top amongst the combustable fuels.