Markethaus Musings

In 2004, BMW demonstrated its version of a clean, sustainable energy future with its hydrogen powered vehicle. Now it has announced that it will build and lease the BMW Hydrogen 7, the first hydrogen driven luxury performance car.

BMW has done extensive research in Hydrogen and has cleverly taken advantage of its ICE (internal combustion engine) technology so a new powertrain is not necessary (unlike hybrids and electrics). Some great side benefits of hydrogen:

• Much lower emissions, basically water vapor
  
• Infinite supply (H2O)!
• Good performance...albeit not as good as the gasoline powered ICE, it still has 260 HP in Hydrogen mode (the BMW 760 is a 12 cylinder)
• Great mobility with 400 miles range...unlike pure electrics who are limited to 100 miles with advanced batteries

Of course this technology is still very, very expensive but in volume...manufacturers will be able to drive the cost down. Very exciting stuff for those of us who worry about the environment and the safety of our energy supply.

The major challenges are the investment to drive down cost of this technology and switching our fuel supply infrastructure to hydrogen. Don't underestimate the time and cost to create the infrastructure. It's taken us 100 years to build infrastructure for oil (exploration, pumping, delivery, refineries, retail gas stations, etc.) and switching will not happen in a few years. Still...I believe that hydrogen is much closer to the ideal future than hybrids and electrics.

Oh yes...for those of you linguistically challenged, Wasserstoff = Hydrogen in German (see sign at fuel station)