BMW Hydrogen 7 leads the 2008 Hydrogen Road Tour
13 Aug, 2008
13 Comments 
BMW is planning to embark on an unprecedented cross-country journey in its Hydrogen 7 - the world’s first hydrogen-powered luxury sedan.
It will join other hydrogen-powered cars from the world’s leading automakers in the 2008 Hydrogen Road Tour.
The fleet also consists of models from Daimler, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai-Kia, Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagen.
“Being on this tour will show more people that hydrogen is truly the best alternative transportation fuel. An internal combustion engine, powered by hydrogen should play an important role in the future of sustainable mobility,” said Tom Baloga, BMW Vice President of Engineering.
The BMW Hydrogen 7 uses one of the cleanest energy sources available, producing essentially zero emissions.
Only water vapour is produced in the combustion process – and BMW boasts that it is safe enough to drink!
The Hydrogen Road Tour is a unique collaboration between the world’s leading automotive figures, including key federal departments, influential non-governmental organisations and hydrogen fuel providers to bring the reality of practical, clean energy to our nation’s legislators and the public.
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August 13th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
To be blunt……is poor Ford have not shown up when they are embarking on Hydrogen road. Toyota are there and they embark on hybrids. Ford really is dumb as and very slow to make hard yards and get away from meetings around round tables! This is a fact and this is why Ford languishing in sales due to slow model releases and previously poor models in range. I sense this is changing as Ford has some hot designs!
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August 13th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I thought they were developing an internal combustion engine to run on Hydrogen as opposed to the other method of producing electricity from stored hydrogen to power an electric motor.
Using Hydrogen with an internal combustion makes more sense to me and the driving experience should be the same as petrol or diesel.
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August 13th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Hear Hear Maxi.
Q. where is the tour? Not that it matters just curious.
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August 13th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
The tour is from the US cities of Portland, Maine to Santa Monica, California
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August 13th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Whatever Realcars…..fact is hydrogen is in this tour and Ford at sea doing SFA R&D as still at round table working out how to release designs and compete! No wonder Toyota are number 1!
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August 13th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
They could assess there car against others, gain feedback on what others are doing, see how others perform - where is FORD. AWOL as run by USA for USA and minimal input with designs that is only now changing with kinetic hot look. Ford should hang there heads and give up as they are RS!
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August 13th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
BMW PR spin at its best. Hydrogen is straw-clutching technology. Might be emission-free out the tailpipe, but takes more fossil fuel to manufacture than what it saves, is too temperature-sensitive to store and reticulate effectively, and only has half the energy of petrol. Not to mention the cost. We’ll all be dead before this is a practical transport fuel alternative.
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August 13th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Whats wrong with you Captain Mainwaring?? Hydrogen has more than 4 times the energy content compared to petrol!
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August 13th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Realcars the Hydrogen 7 is internal combustion on Hydrogen and can switch to petrol at the push of a button. It has separate tanks for hydrogen and fuel and it’s owners will probably still use petrol most of the time because there are very few filling stations in the world that are compatible with the Hydrogen 7.
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August 13th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Mainwaring in the ideal hydrogen economy hydrogen is provided as a byproduct of several industrial processes. So hydrogen is a very good idea. The question is more this: is enough hydrogen produced as a byproduct to power everyone in the hydrogen economy, or just a few.
Hydrogen is a perfectly viable alternative, but for how many people?
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August 13th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
There has been huge break throughs in hydrogen storage in only the last few months and there is development of bio-hydrogen (produced by microbes - like biodiesels) currently being developed. It is a viable alternative - and potentially the best.
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August 13th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I think an internal comustion engine that runs on hydrogen seems like the way to the future. As it seems as though it will provide all the fun things conventional cars provide us with now, only we don’t have to worry about oil, although by the time it becomes main stream the last barrel of oil ever produced will probably be on display in a museum some where.
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August 15th, 2008 at 10:18 am
“Hydrogen has more than 4 times the energy content compared to petrol!”
yes, its more explosive but it has a lower density so you need more to cover the same distance. Then there’s the supply and demand issue, producing hydrogen is expensive. There are some interesting technologies on the way which may help but the time to market maybe too long.
This car is an excellent concept and drive claimed it has been in development for 30 years!!. But the reality is electric cars not Hydrogen. They will be available quicker and once people get use to the idea of plug in who’s going to want to visit a petrol station again.
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