BMW Hydrogen Program Scaling Back

MUNICH, Germany — BMW has scaled back its long-running hydrogen program, which has lately seen a small number of high-profile individuals and organizations running 100 hydrogen-fueled 7 Series-based Hydrogen 7s for evaluation. BMW says it is now concentrating finite engineering resources on electric vehicle and hybrid developments at the expense of this hydrogen initiative.

Unlike almost every other carmaker except Mazda, BMW had been pursuing the conversion of internal-combustion engines to run on hydrogen rather than using it to feed a fuel cell that in turn produces electricity.

BMW has also swum against the tide when it comes to onboard hydrogen storage. Instead of compressing the gas to around 800 bar, it chills the gas to liquid at -253 degrees Celsius, a solution that demands the equivalent of a third of the energy in the tank for the liquefying process. Worse, the fuel eventually warms up, expands and has to be blown off. A parked car eventually empties its tank over two to three weeks.

For this reason, and because of the very limited availability of liquid hydrogen, the H7 also ran on gasoline, forcing efficiency-damaging compromises on the engine and the need to package two fuel tanks. In gasoline mode, the 7 Series returned around 25 miles per gallon, but in hydrogen mode it fell to less than 8 mpg, allowing a range of no more than 125 miles.

The upside of this system was cleaner running, of course, as well as the possibility of continuing to use the internal-combustion engine, in which every carmaker has made huge capital investments. But as a means of reducing emissions to zero, it has serious drawbacks.

Inside Line says: BMW's hydrogen strategy is flawed, from the H7's fuel consumption to its fuel storage system. Do not be surprised if this approach dies a quiet death. — Richard Bremner, Correspondent