BMW may offer a hydrogen-powered version of the 7-Series within the next two years, according to AFX News. BMW’s hydrogen efforts center around the hydrogen combustion engine. BMW says this technology promises to offer motorists a driving experience very similar to that of gasoline engines, without having to compromise performance. The BMW approach is not the same as a hydrogen fuel cell, and does not involve the use of electric motors. The first cars are expected to run on either hydrogen or gasoline, for optimal practicality. BMW showed a prototype called the 745h in 2001, which featured a 8-cylinder combustion engine.
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03/14, 11:18 AM
posted by:
Northeasterner
Hats off to BMW if they manage to be the first automaker to offer production hydrogen cars. I know Honda is another contender.
03/14, 12:25 PM
posted by:
JSP
Driving an electric car just doesn’t have the visceral excitement of an internal combustion engine. Thankfully that BMW is going the internal combustion route for hydrogen.
03/14, 1:30 PM
posted by:
Dave
Northeasterner, Mazda already offers a production vehicle (lease only) that runs off Hydrogen or gas. It’s the RX-8
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11363868/
03/14, 1:54 PM
posted by:
S P
I wish they would announce it already, so I could put my name on the list! They’ve been developing it for something in the neighborhood of 40 years.
03/14, 2:25 PM
posted by:
Anonymous
Dave, I think he meant a mass-market production car. Those Mazda vehicles are one-off’s and absurdly expensive. It’s like a solar car… you can’t just walk into a dealer and purchase one.
I guess we are waiting to see who does for hydrogen-power, what Honda and Toyota did for hybrids.
03/14, 5:13 PM
posted by:
Beavis
Great! I’ll buy one and just drive on down to my local hydrogen station and fill her up! :::rolleyes::: What a waste of money by BMW. Hydrogen ain’t going anywhere. There is zero infrastructure for those cars and won’t be anytime soon.
03/14, 5:58 PM
posted by:
Daz
Hey Beavis, that’s the attitude, guess the wright brothers were total idiots to invent the airplane when there were no airports to land them at!
Go back to the couch and watch videos with Butthead!
03/14, 6:28 PM
posted by:
digitalzombie
yay hydrogen. I wonder if the road will always be went then? since water will come out of the exhuast? maybe we can get pay to dump the clean water soemwhere?
03/14, 6:29 PM
posted by:
digitalzombie
wet*
03/14, 7:57 PM
posted by:
iSPY2.ORG » Blog Archive » BMW to sell hydrogen-burning car in two years
[...] BMW could offer a hydrogen-powered performance car in the next two years. This SHOULD NOT be confused with a hydrogen fuel cell, which uses an electric motor like a hybrid car. This car would actually burn hydrogen as well as gasoline in the same engine.read more | digg story [...]
03/14, 9:05 PM
posted by:
asokrbum
Another follow-up for Beavis… http://www.h2stations.org/. “Zero infrastructure” is an exaggeration… a very small infrastructure exists in certain markets. And as the market for hydrogen cars grows, so will the infrastructure. Baby steps…
03/14, 11:30 PM
posted by:
manny
digital, this aint a hydrogen fuel cell car… its hydrogen combustion. burnt hydrogen doesnt leave behind water. seeing as this is not a fuel-cell car, i imagine this is more viable for mass production than hondas fcx because it doesnt require complex parts that would make the car cost hundreds of thousands of dollars… though i still want some guarantee that when my car crashes the hydrogen tank doesnt go hindenburg…
03/15, 2:50 AM
posted by:
digitalzombie
ooooooooo thx manny. I think some old white geezer patent a technology where these thin sponge act like a sponge that absorb the hydrogen. I believe that will stop it from exploding.
03/15, 6:01 AM
posted by:
Wilco Niessen dot com » Blog Archive » BMW to sell hydrogen-burning car in two years
[...] read more | digg story [...]
03/15, 9:01 AM
posted by:
meneame.net
BMW lanzará coches de "combustión de hidrógeno" en 2 años
BMW los comercializará en 2 años y están llamados a revolucionar el mercado, se comentó el proyecto hace un tiempo en meneame, http://meneame.net/story.php?id=661 , no podemos confundir estos coches con los conocidos de hidrogeno, pues estos utiliz…
03/15, 11:03 AM
posted by:
bloqy
@Manny
I’m pretty sure the internal combustion with hydrogen does produce water. In chemistry its a combustion reaction which always produces H20.
03/16, 9:49 PM
posted by:
manny
yeah, we actually learned that in chem class today… but im pretty sure its like superheated water (steam)… because when you see normal gas cars drive by and theres water pourin out the pipes, something is seriously wrong
03/29, 3:36 AM
posted by:
tumbstone
i love the idea..bmw could save the world, just dont zhing zhong it.(make it durable)
04/07, 9:26 AM
posted by:
JohnM
The problem is that hydrogen does’t occurn in an abundantly available pure form, therefore it must be harvested. The best way to do this currently is by extracting it from methane gas. So as long as we have natural gas, we can harvest hydorgen to the best efficiency.
Sadly, it now takes slightly more energy to harvest hydrogen than it does to burn it. This, and the necessity for a non-renuable resource to harvest it, make hydrogen not an energy transfer rather than a savings. Fuel cells are still the way to go.
07/26, 1:16 PM
posted by:
The soft science stare at Definitive Reference
[...] Lots more sustainability information. I read an article in, well, this is stupid, but I think it was Entertainment Magazine (which is sorta dull if you ask me, though filled with cool useless/bored information). Back to the topic though, the article was about Al Gore, and that power-point-presentation ‘An Incovienent Truth’. It described sustainability as hip, and Al Gore as becoming hip. I don’t know about that, but all over the news streams and blogs are increasingly large amounts of ‘green’ information. Mostly I just saw this on metafilter, a talk on YouTube about what he deems ‘The Next Industrial Revolution’. And that fully electric sports car from Tesla Motors (which is so much money it makes it not worthwhile to buy, naturally [much comparable to the BMW hydrogen powered car). For a change of topics, though, a few articles about over drinking, eating, and smoking recently came to my attention. [...]