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Alternative to electric drive: BMW launches hydrogen cars

2022-09-05T06:53:36.730Z


Alternative to electric drive: BMW launches hydrogen cars Created: 09/05/2022, 08:41 By: Martin Prem BMW is preparing for the hydrogen age. The car manufacturer produces a small series of fuel cells in Garching. At the end of the decade, the hydrogen drive should also be mass-produced.  Garching – BMW had to take a lot of criticism for sticking to the combustion engine. While almost the entire


Alternative to electric drive: BMW launches hydrogen cars

Created: 09/05/2022, 08:41

By: Martin Prem

BMW is preparing for the hydrogen age.

The car manufacturer produces a small series of fuel cells in Garching.

At the end of the decade, the hydrogen drive should also be mass-produced. 

Garching – BMW had to take a lot of criticism for sticking to the combustion engine.

While almost the entire automotive industry relies on battery cars, BMW wants to keep many options open when it comes to drive issues.

Batteries are not a viable solution for long distances or towing a trailer.

BMW launches hydrogen cars - hunger for raw materials is lower than with battery cars

Another drive technology has been within reach for BMW since yesterday.

The group is launching a small series of vehicles with fuel cells based on the SUV X5.

The energy generator, which generates electricity from hydrogen, is being built in Garching.

However, he already has a long journey behind him.

Because the cells, many layers of which are assembled into a compact power plant in Garching, still come from Toyota in Japan.

The energy generator, which generates electricity from hydrogen, is being built in Garching.

BMW CEO Oliver Zipse, Prime Minister Markus Söder and Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger attended the premiere.

© State Chancellery/BMW

And the finished fuel cells embark on another long-distance journey.

Because the iX5 Hydrogene is built in Spartanburg (USA), the center for the off-road BMW models.

When explaining the technology, Frank Weber, BMW Board Member for Technology, picks up a filler neck that resembles the nozzle of a petrol pump.

It takes three or four minutes for the fuel to travel around 600 kilometers to flow through this nozzle into the high-pressure tanks on board.

An unusual feeling of electric charging, because a fuel cell vehicle is an electric car - with a very small battery.

This helps when more than the 150 kilowatts mobilized by the fuel cell are required.

Altogether it is 275 kilowatts.

The battery also stores the energy recovered during braking.

Not only short refueling times and long ranges speak for the hydrogen car.

The hunger for raw materials is also lower than with battery cars.

Platinum, one of the rare substances in fuel cells, can be obtained from recycled catalysts, as BMW boss Oliver Zipse says.

This is how discarded combustion engines become a source of raw materials for electromobility.

The wasteful use of energy speaks against the fuel cell.

Because both the generation of hydrogen and the renewed conversion in the fuel cell are associated with a number of losses.

It can only ever pay off if there is an abundance of green electricity.

BMW starts hydrogen division: test drivers from all over the world are to test the small series of 100 vehicles in everyday life.

© Tom Kirkpatrick/BMW AG

Hydrogen car: Political support for BMW

Conversely, "without hydrogen we will not be CO2-free," says Weber.

"We are convinced that decarbonization is only possible with technical means," adds Zipse.

The hydrogen car, which is being built in very small numbers, is not yet on the market.

The series, which consists of fewer than 100 vehicles, is to be tested in everyday use by motorists all over the world.

But in the medium term, hydrogen cars from BMW will also be available for purchase.

In the new series, the future vehicle architecture of the Munich group, the tanks and cell are located where the battery is located in other electric cars.

According to Weber, the two concepts will “coexist in the market”.

BMW has broad political support for the new development, at least in Bavaria.

"We are a car country and want to remain so," said Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), who took the wheel independently after the start of production.

And Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) raised his thumb after his test drive.

"So quick," he said, "and so quiet."

One could almost feel sorry for Söder and Aiwanger, who had to continue their journey in petrol-driven service limousines.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-09-05

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