First drive: BMW Hydrogen 7 is right at home in Oz

HYDROGEN remains the Holy Grail of alternative fuels for cars and a leading global expert believes that Australia is well-placed to play a role in an environmentally sound transport future.

The project manager of BMW’s innovative Hydrogen 7 vehicle, Willi Prestl, told GoAuto that Australia is an ideal country for hydrogen power because – despite the current drought – we have an abundance of energy resources and water, from which hydrogen is made.

Australia could therefore be self-sufficient and also a source of liquid hydrogen for global markets.

Having most of our population concentrated in a small number of cities linked by major highways also makes Australia relatively easy to service with hydrogen filling stations, so we are well-placed to be one of the early adopters of this vital new fuel source.

And, interestingly, BMW’s hydrogen partner is The Linde Group, which owns BOC Gases, a company that is well-established in Australia and which has a wide distribution network.

Cars running on hydrogen emit virtually no harmful exhaust emissions or CO2, emitting only water vapour.

However, despite having a user-friendly and apparently production-ready car already built – and which GoAuto was able to drive in Melbourne last week – BMW still says that it will be between 2020 and 2025 before hydrogen-powered cars will be commercially viable.

That timing coincides with BMW’s assessment that oil production will peak between 2025 and 2040, although the director of the company’s CleanEnergy program, Jochen Schmalholz, concedes that many people believe that we have already passed that point.

Mr Schmalholz said that “hydrogen is the only feasible solution” to the world’s future mobility needs.

He believes that by 2040 to 2050 liquid hydrogen will be as readily available as petrol is today.

There will be limited liquid hydrogen availability around the world from 2012 as various carmakers are set to produce hydrogen-fuelled fuel cell cars, which are electric-powered and use hydrogen to charge the batteries.

However, BMW has long taken a different route down the hydrogen path and is committed to producing hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines that look, drive and are produced just like conventional petrol-powered cars.

BMW started its hydrogen program in 1975 and has invested heavily to reach the stage where it has produced a batch of 100 production-standard 7 Series-based cars for technical and promotional purposes.

The sixth-generation series of Hydrogen 7s were built on the regular production line at BMW’s Dingolfing factory as part of the ‘productionisation’ process.

Four of the ground-breaking Hydrogen 7 cars visited Australia as the first leg of an international awareness tour. Thousands of people visited a special BMW marquee at Melbourne’s Federation Square over nine days, finishing on Monday.

During our drive of one of the valuable prototypes, Mr Prustl told GoAuto that it will take until at least 2020 to establish a sufficiently viable fuel distribution network around the world.

Mr Schmalholz said it is also essential to produce hydrogen fuel from renewable sources. Because hydrogen is produced using electricity, that means having sufficient biomass, solar, hydro or wind energy available.

He said it would take 10-20 years before renewable hydrogen would be commercially available.

In the meantime, BMW has been forced to go down the hybrid route championed by Toyota and followed by most other carmakers in response to US legislative requirements. BMW will release a hybrid version of its new X6 by 2010.

But BMW remains fully committed to a hydrogen future – not only because we are running out of oil but also because of its enormous environmental benefits – and the company appears to have overcome most of the technical challenges and drawbacks that this new fuel provides.

The biggest challenges come from the fact that hydrogen – which is a gas in its natural state, and the most plentiful element on earth – has to be compressed to turn it into a liquid form.

It then has to be stored and transported in a compressed state, and at a temperature of minus 253 degrees Centigrade. Even then it takes up four times as much space as petrol and produces one-third less power in the engine.

BMW developed a thermos-like cryogenic multi-layer high-pressure fuel tank that has such extraordinary insulation properties that it can hold a piece of ice for 13 years without melting, so keeping the hydrogen at -253c is no problem.

The tank is made from stainless steel and weighs 170kg, but an aluminium construction is possible, which would reduce the weight to 70kg. And, although the tank cannot be made any smaller, Mr Prestl believes that by the time cars are designed specifically for hydrogen the tanks have more accommodating shapes and will be better packaged, with less impact on boot space.

In conjunction with The Linde Group, GM and Honda, an F1-style refuelling mechanism was developed to safely replenish the tank, but it takes up to eight minutes. These nozzles should become the industry standard for hydrogen to ensure there are no compatibility problems in the future.

As for the engine power, Mr Prestl said that BMW has already tested direct injection and turbocharged engines that produce three times as much power as the current V12, so performance will ultimately not be a problem.

For the record, the Hydrogen 7 6.0-litre V12 produces 191kw of power and 390Nm of torque compared with 327kW and 600Nm for the same engine in the regular 7 Series.

Running on hydrogen alone, the BMW has a range of only 200km, but the car can be switched to petrol while driving and cover a further 500km.

Driving the BMW Hydrogen 7:

YOU don’t often get to drive new technology a decade or more ahead of production, so it was with understandable great anticipation that we accepted BMW’s offer of getting behind the wheel of one of its Hydrogen 7 on the streets of Melbourne.

And not just for a hundred metres or a lap of the block, either, but a proper 100km drive on roads that we happened to know very well.

But it was ultimately underwhelming. Not in a bad way in a very good way. The Hydrogen 7 is so incredibly well developed and well produced that it was just like driving a normal car. If it wasn’t for being left-hand drive, it could have been any old BMW 760Li.

Starting the car was no different, apart from the fact that the otherwise conventional V12 combustion engine took a little longer than normal to fire up.

Standing outside, there is more combustion and injector noise – not unlike a diesel – because the hydrogen is injected into the engine as a gas rather than a fluid like petrol. This noise is barely audible inside the car and can really only be noticed as a slightly appealing mechanical high-speed tick under heavy throttle.

The biggest thing you notice from the driver’s seat is the lethargic performance because the heavier and less powerful Hydrogen 7 accelerates from 0-100km/h in 9.5 seconds compared with 5.6 seconds for the regular 760Li.

A button on the steering wheel switches the engine from hydrogen to petrol imperceptibly and can be done at any time, even on the move, without the occupants being aware unless they sense a tiny click behind the rear seat.

There is a small read-out on the dash – alongside the dual digital fuel gauges – to advise whether you are running on petrol or hydrogen.

However, switching to petrol does not provide a sudden power boost because the engine has been programmed to develop the same (greatly reduced) output regardless of which fuel is being used, to avoid a sudden transition.

But fear not because those enthusiasts at BMW have already produced three times as much power using direct injection and turbocharging, though you might have to head straight for the refilling station with such an engine.

Boot space is severely restricted by having the enormous tank located behind the passenger seat, but production cars will be much better packaged.

We were lucky enough to also experience refuelling from a portable unit imported from China for the occasion, and we can report that it is not exactly user-friendly. The awkward (though no doubt safe) F1-style nozzle has to be located accurately and is quite heavy, which could be a problem for women in particular.

In terms of fuel cost, it is too early to make serious assessments because liquid hydrogen will undoubtedly get cheaper and consumption is likely to improve over the next decade.

But for what it’s worth, the Hydrogen 7 carries 8kg of fuel that currently costs anything from 2Euro to 10Euro per kg (about $3.30 to $16.50), depending where you are in the world. That means it would cost between about $26 and $80 to travel 200km while a petrol 760Li over the same distance will use 27 litres of petrol costing about $40, and rising...

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