MUNICH — BMW Group stays a giant believer in hydrogen-powered automobiles.
The automaker started a worldwide pilot launch of about 80 of its iX5 hydrogen crossovers earlier this 12 months amid the trade’s flurry of investments and curiosity in battery-electric automobiles.
BMW dispatched the automobiles to pick out markets and put them within the arms of goal prospects. So far, the suggestions has been encouraging, mentioned Juergen Guldner, normal program supervisor of hydrogen know-how for the corporate.
“People are saying, ‘This is cool. We wish more people would do this, because batteries alone will not be able to do the job,’ ” he instructed Automotive News. “There’s too much uncertainty. We need a second technology and this could be it.”
He supplied an replace on the pilot Monday throughout IAA Mobility, the place BMW debuted a hydrogen idea in 2019.
The greatest revelations associated to the hydrogen iX5s got here from Germany, California and the Middle East, from which members of the goal audiences supplied their assessments.
For some, the hydrogen-powered automobiles in contrast favorably with battery-electric automobiles as a result of the vary was steady in each summer season and winter, Guldner mentioned. In specific, motorists mentioned they felt extra snug operating the air con on sizzling days relatively than worrying about whether or not utilizing the air would lower their battery vary.
“That was interesting to hear,” he mentioned.
The automobiles have been constructed at BMW’s Research and Innovation Centre in Munich. The gasoline cells are equipped by Toyota Motor Corp. The two corporations have partnered on hydrogen-fuel cell developments for the previous decade.
The pilot venture has been on the corporate’s long-term hydrogen highway map, Guldner mentioned. BMW may put the iX5 hydrogen automobiles into manufacturing by the tip of the last decade, he mentioned.
That would place the automaker amongst a handful of counterparts that consider hydrogen gasoline cells present a viable choice for light-duty passenger automobiles. Early outcomes are underwhelming.
Sales of the Toyota Mirai and Hyundai Nexo, the one two hydrogen automobiles available on the market, have languished in comparison with battery electrics. Hyundai offered about 400 Nexo fuel-cell crossovers within the U.S. in 2022, in keeping with the Automotive News Research & Data Center, whereas the Mirai tallied about 2,000.
During the identical 12 months, 756,534 battery electrics have been registered within the U.S., in keeping with Experian knowledge.
Despite the low light-vehicle quantity, Guldner was not the one one touting hydrogen’s potential in passenger vehicles at IAA. Wan Gang, an early architect of China’s large electric-car effort, mentioned hydrogen vehicles may sometime be produced in larger quantity than battery electrics, in keeping with Bloomberg.
Many power consultants say hydrogen’s most promising use in floor transportation can be in long-haul trucking, the place fast refueling and excessive power density are benefits and heavy batteries a hindrance for battery-electric vans.
Source: www.autonews.com