This article takes a look the BMW hydrogen car, and explores the positives and negatives to going green with the environmentally friendly BMW Hydrogen 7.

BMW’s New Hydrogen 7: A Mixed Blessing

Question: How is BMW’s new Hydrogen 7 like the hard-earned cash flocks of people are spending to own one?

Answer: It’s green! That’s right, BMW’s new luxury performance sedan is being touted as a mean, green, environment-loving machine capable of running on liquid hydrogen while discharging almost nothing but water vapor. And it will do all this while most cars still spout nauseating, ozone killing carbon dioxide.

But before you grab for your wallet or sign that lease, be warned: this glimpse into an “eco-friendly” future is a mixed bag filled with both innovative wonders and glaring issues.

The new BMW hydrogen car, The Hydrogen 7 is the first hydrogen-powered luxury sedan ever designed for everyday use, and with a powerhouse like BMW behind its development, several fuel distributors, government agencies, and environmental groups have partnered up to support the project. However, despite their best efforts, there are only five liquid hydrogen refueling stations in all of Germany and merely two in the US. Knowing that, BMW designed the Hydrogen 7 to be a dual-fuel vehicle, able to switch seamlessly between its 17.6 lb hydrogen storage tank and its 19.5-gallon premium gasoline tank without suffering any loss in engine performance.

The drive is a little slower than you’d expect from a 7-series, but not for a lack of power. The car has put on about 440 lbs thanks in large part to its new V12 cylinder, 260 hp (191 kW) liquid hydrogen combustion engine, but it can still deliver 0 to 60 mph in 9.2 seconds, with the car’s top speed electronically limited to 143 mph.

Under the best conditions, this BMW hydrogen car is capable of meeting a cruising range of just over 425 miles—getting nearly 125 miles when fueled from the hydrogen storage tank and 300 miles when running in gasoline mode. The car is made with hydrogen in mind, of course, but whenever the hydrogen tank is depleted, it will automatically switch from hydrogen to petroleum with little more than a soft click. Manual switching between the two fuel sources is possible via the steering wheel-mounted fuel mode button.

The Hydrogen 7 is a revelation, offering a nearly unpolluting ride. But the problems begin to show once we take a closer look under the hood. Since the engine has been adapted to run on either hydrogen or gasoline, it could not be fully optimized for either source, resulting in lower engine efficiency and some barely audible engine clatter when the car runs on the more volatile hydrogen fuel source.

Although BMW is hopeful that the methods for extracting hydrogen for fuel will become more environmentally friendly over time, that’s not the case today. Liquid hydrogen may offer better range and performance per tank than its gaseous counterpart, but the car is still a guzzler, getting only 4.7 miles per gallon of hydrogen or 17 miles per gallon of gasoline, the latter being a far cry from the 40-plus miles per gallon many gas-electric hybrids flaunt today. Add to that the energy required to store the hydrogen below its -423.0°F boiling point and the fact that half the hydrogen stored in its tank will go bad after little more than a week and suddenly the Hydrogen 7 looks much greedier.

Still ready to shell out money for a new H-7? Then get ready to pay the equivalent of 61 cents USD per hydrogen-fueled mile you drive on German streets. No word on prices in the US, but that’s about $24 for your average daily commute in many American cities. And don’t worry, fossil fuels will be used to generate that liquid hydrogen you’ll be pumping into your new BMW.

With all that in mind, the brand new Hydrogen 7 starts to look more like an old Hummer.

Yet, it can not be denied that the BMW hydrogen car is a big step in a positive direction, especially if you consider any move away from fossil fuel dependency a good one. The very existence of a car that can use hydrogen and expel almost nothing but water brings us all much closer to an efficient and reliable means of transportation that doesn't negatively impact on the environment. However, whether the final clean fuel answer will be the high-performance hydrogen combustion engine or another more ecologically sound option remains to be seen.

Thank you to Jason E. Perkins for this article on " The BMW Hydrogen Car".

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Hydrogen Car Info Table of Contents

Hydrogen car - Introduction and home page of Going green with hydrogen fuel cell powered cars. Page 1 of this article will introduce you to the environmental toll fossil fules are putting on our environment.

Hydrogen Powered Car - Page two of Going green with hydrogen fuel cell powered cars gives you a basic introduction to the alternatives available to fossil fuels.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car - Page three of Going green with hydrogen fuel cell powered cars gets to a great possible solution to our environmental issues caused by fossil fuels, and to weather hydrogen fuel cell powered cars are efficient and clean.

Hydrogen Fuel Car - Page four of Going green with hydrogen fuel cell powered cars provides you with some basic technical information to how this energy works, and also includes our conclusion to this article.