Cape Canaveral, FL – August 8, 2007 – Against the backdrop of NASA engineers preparing to launch the Space Shuttle Endeavour today, BMW of North America and NASA announced the successful completion of an eight-week test period of the BMW Hydrogen 7 – the first hydrogen-powered luxury sedan.
The test period was initiated under a Space Act Agreement between NASA and BMW, as part of both organization’s commitment to hydrogen technologies, innovative transportation concepts and alternative energy sources.
“We are very proud to have been able to offer this test period of the BMW Hydrogen 7 to NASA, an organization that truly is on the forefront of discovery and innovation and with whom we share a unique common goal: the use and ongoing research of liquid hydrogen solutions,” said Karl-Heinz Ziwica, Vice President of Engineering, BMW of North America.
“It is the high energy density of liquid hydrogen that allows the space shuttle to be accelerated into space. The same concept is used to power the BMW Hydrogen 7,” said Ziwica. He believes that using hydrogen as a fuel can potentially reduce CO2 emissions by 90 percent. The BMW Hydrogen 7 is BMWs way of demonstrating that hydrogen-drive vehicles are a viable option for creating sustainable mobility.
During the test period, NASA personnel had full access to the fleet of BMW Hydrogen 7s, which run on a form of liquid hydrogen similar to what NASA uses in its shuttles. During their time with NASA, the vehicles – which feature a dual combustion engine capable of running on liquid hydrogen or gasoline and shifting seamlessly between the two – were conveniently refueled using the space center’s liquid hydrogen fueling supply located on the space center’s premises. While this fueling station wouldn’t be available to consumers it helps to show that this technology has real world applications.
The BMW Hydrogen 7 – “the world's first hydrogen-drive luxury performance automobile” debuted last year as everyone in the United States was talking about hybrids. In Europe the buzz is all about diesels. But some automakers, scientists and engineers believe hydrogen powered internal combustion engines, which are different than fuel cells, will be a part of the transportation mix in the future.
A big drawback for this technology is a viable infrastructure. The cars can be produced. They can be made safe and they will have similar range to a gasoline- powered car all while emitting only water out of the tailpipe but there are too few places to refuel to make this a practical choice right now. Even if a car dealer offered them on the lot with a full tank you’d be hard pressed to find a place to gas up if you ventured to out on a road trip.
That is one reason that BMW built the Hydrogen 7. The technology plays to the company’s strength, a core of internal combustion engines that can be converted to run on hydrogen and they want to help stimulate demand for a viable hydrogen infrastructure.
The car comes equipped with an internal combustion engine capable of running on either liquid hydrogen or gasoline and is based on the BMW 760Li. The V12 cylinder engine delivers 260 hp; the top speed of the Hydrogen 7 is 143 mph and acceleration 0-60 mph is 9.2 sec.
When driving in hydrogen mode, emissions of the BMW Hydrogen 7 are virtually nothing but water vapor. Since the start of research and development in alternative fuel sources more than 25 years ago, BMW has focused on liquid hydrogen as the appropriate source of energy for the automobile. The car features a high-tech vacuum super-insulated hydrogen tank in which liquid hydrogen can be stored at the extremely low temperature of -423 ° Fahrenheit (-253 °Celsius) for a long period of time – the same insulating effect as a 17-meter-thick layer of Styrofoam. One hundred BMW Hydrogen 7s have been built, and 25 are used in test programs in the US. The cars have already covered more than 1.3 million miles in test programs around the globe.
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