BMW may offer ev buyers hydrogen fuel cell power as no-cost option – CarBuzz.
BMW’s advancements in developing hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and constructing them may soon mean the ability to offer the technology as a no-cost option, according to Auto Express. Earlier this year, BMW revealed that it was working toward integrating hydrogen in the Neue Klasse range of next-generation vehicles, which is geared mainly toward battery-electric propulsion, but now we’re learning that the technology is progressing well enough for it to potentially be offered without a price premium.
The BMW iX5 Hydrogen, a fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV), features a pair of gas tanks in the middle of the vehicle. But its suppliers have found a better solution, producing smaller tanks that can be placed in various areas within the chassis compartments that would otherwise house battery packs in battery-electric vehicles (BEVs).
Auto Express reports that these new tanks retain the same overall capacity, and structural soundness is not compromised either. The head of BMW’s hydrogen program, Juergen Guldner, suggests that this and the fact that recycling FCEVs is much cheaper and easier than BEVs will allow BMW to offer a hydrogen fuel cell system as an alternative to a battery pack at comparable prices.
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In our mind, this means that someone may be able to buy a BEV near its end-of-life phase and get BMW to update it with a brand-new fuel cell system, keeping the car on the road for longer and reducing carbon emissions.
But it’s worth maintaining a certain level of cynicism, mainly when talking about a premium automaker like BMW; it’s highly likely that the choice between a fuel cell and a battery will only be offered at the first sale.
However it plays out, making hydrogen power more affordable is one of the industry’s biggest challenges, and BMW seems to have found the key.
Guldner says that the hydrogen prototype we’ve seen in an X5 body is in a similar sort of pilot phase as the Mini E, which ultimately led to the production of the BMW i3 supermini. That means we can expect to see the iX5 Hydrogen testing in public more and more, and “if market conditions are right,” hydrogen vehicles will eventually make their way to production.
Why does it matter? “When traveling, I’d like to eat where I enjoy the food and not where there’s an electric charge point available.” That was a quote from a customer, which proves that EVs still have their stumbling blocks, including access to at-home and at-work charging, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles could overcome many of them.
We’ll get a good idea of how far hydrogen has come and where it’s going at the BMW exhibit at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
BMW May Offer EV Buyers Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Power As No-Cost Option, July 8, 2023
