BMW Launches Pioneer Program for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars

On Thursday, BMW announced that it has given the keys to its BMW Hydrogen 7 model, the first hydrogen-powered luxury sedan, to actor Will Ferrel.

The Pioneer Program will see BMW giving captains of industry, entertainment stars, political leaders, and other movers and shakers with high profiles a Hydrogen 7 sedan for their daily use, as a means of promoting what the company thinks is a revolution in the automotive world.

BMW is of the opinion that hydrogen fuel cell technology will be that which replaces gasoline-based engines in the cars of the future, and believes that the Hydrogen 7 will be one of the great pioneering models on that trajectory into the future world.

The BMW corporation emphasizes that its Hydrogen 7 sedan is not a concept car, but a production model vehicle that has successfully completed the entire Product Development Process and has thereby met all of the standards necessary for a vehicle to be driven on American roads.

Hydrogen fuel cell engines essentially emit nothing but water vapor, thereby going a long way toward reducing harmful carbon dioxide emissions, which advocates of the man-made global warming theory say lends itself to the destruction of earth's protective atmosphere. While the Pioneer Program is operational, 25 of the 100 cars that BMW plans to produce will be used in evaluation programs in the United States.

The revolutionary car is actually not for sale, but it's considered to be a milestone in creating far greater public awareness in hydrogen as the most viable of the sustainable fuel alternatives for individual transportation of the future.

While hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, it does not naturally exist on the earth in its elemental form. Engineers and scientists have to produce pure hydrogen from hydrogen compounds, which include water and can include the fossil fuels coal and oil. In order to extract hydrogen from these compounds, energy inputs are required; this energy might be in the form of heat, light, or electricity.

Critics of the hydrogen fuel cell future say that we have too far to go to find inexpensive ways of efficiently creating the pure hydrogen necessary for use in engines, and what's more there is extremely expensive infrastructure work to be done to facilitate such engines.

The production of gas from oil has an energy efficiency (ratio of output gotten from input) of 75%. By contrast, a hydrogen fuel cell-powered engine has been estimated to have a 64% efficiency.

However, proponents like BMW are confident that the efficiency ratio can be raised. What's more, they say, the paucity of pollution, the endless supply sources of hydrogen, and the less expensive and better-handling lighter cars that would be made possible by the construction of engine systems that don't need a liquid fuel storage space are benefits that all outweigh the costs of production and development. Also, they say let's not forget the fuel cells take us a long way toward being rid of the need for foreign oil.

Source:
BMW of North America, LLC (PR Newswire), "First Americans Set to Drive the BMW Hydrogen 7 on U.S. Roadways"