BMW Sees Slow Hydrogen Progress, Eyes Electric Car
By John O'Dell February 1, 2008
Fuel for BMW Hydrogen cars is scarce and likely to remain so, company says.
In yet another blow to those who hope to see hydrogen become the world's preferred automotive fuel sooner rather than later, BMW – long a hydrogen proponent – now says it doesn't see much chance of widespread commercialization of the fuel over the next 15 to 20 years.
While it will still keep experimenting with liquid-hydrogen fueled internal combustion engines, BMW now is working on an electric car as well, the German automaker's clean technologies director, Jochen Schmalholz, told Australian journalists this week. Battery Bimmer Not Certain
As for an electric Bimmer, the company is developing a prototype, he said, but is "not really convinced it will work for BMW. But if it makes commercial sense and it makes sense to our customers, then we will do it."
Even if BMW doesn’t go into production with its own model, Schmalholz said he said agrees with GM Chairman Rick Wagoner that electric vehicles will be a reality within the next 5 to 10 years.
Lack of Fuel
That's a lot sooner than the hydrogen that the company had been counting on.
BMW has built a fleet of 100 hydrogen-burning 7 Series sedans that it is parceling out to high-profile entertainment, political and business figures in the U.S. and Europe in order to collect real-world driving data.
But there are only five liquid hydrogen filling stations in the world – four in Germany and one in the U.S. – and not much chance of any significant increase in the next few decades.
Electric vehicles such as the experimental Chevrolet Equinox and Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell models use rely on gaseous hydrogen, but that's also hard to find as an automotive fuel..
Lack of places to refuel, Schmalholz said in an interview with Australia's Drive.com, "is the biggest hurdle to the hydrogen car."
Environmental Impact An Issue
Also problematic, he said, is that most hydrogen today is produiced from natural gas or oil, non-renewable resources, that release lots of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, when processed into hydrogen.
"We can move a car without any CO2 emissions" with hydrogen fuel, Schmalholz said. "But we just shift the problem to production … we need to find a way to produce hydrogen using electrolysis and solar energy. Hydrogen cars only make sense if we can produce green hydrogen."
LEAVE A COMMENT
The 'hydrogen highway' isn't a highway at all -- it's a cul-de-sac. Good to see one of its foremost proponents conceding that battery electric vehicles may quite likely capture the marketplace long before hydrogen could possibly hope to do so. Personally I don't see hydrogen ever making it -- battery EVs will become so widespread and so affordable by 2015, that the whole concept of hydrogen vehicles will die a death. Research funding will be curtailed in favour of cashing in on what works. The hurdles which EVs have to overcome (range, and battery cost) will be surmounted far sooner than those facing the hydrogen alternative. Hydrogen in fuel cells may be developed, but hydrogen as a fuel in combustion engines is not going to happen - because combustion engines will no longer be in widespread use that far down the road.
ADD A COMMENT