ANTWERP, Belgium – “Vary goes to be an issue without end in electrical mobility – particularly if you wish to have reasonably priced merchandise,” BMW boss Oliver Zipse mentioned. That’s an incredibly blunt assertion from a agency with a rising lineup of EVs, but it surely explains why executives are leaving room within the vary for hydrogen-powered vehicles.
On paper, it’s an argument that holds water: a hydrogen-electric automobile requires a a lot smaller battery pack than a comparable electrical automobile, it affords the identical quantity of driving vary whatever the outdoors temperature, and it may be refueled as shortly as a gasoline-burning mannequin. Zipse clarified that BMW isn’t creating hydrogen know-how as a substitute for EVs; they’re two comparable powertrain applied sciences that complement one another. Electrical energy is finest suited to smaller vehicles, he famous, whereas hydrogen is healthier for larger automobiles, particularly people who recurrently embark on lengthy journeys whereas towing one thing heavy.
Honest sufficient, however what does this imply in actual life? BMW developed a hydrogen-electric, X5-based prototype referred to as iX5 to seek out out, and I used to be one of many first folks outdoors of the corporate to drive it.
BMW started experimenting with hydrogen know-how nicely earlier than most of its friends and rivals. In 2005, it launched a 7 Sequence-based prototype referred to as Hydrogen 7 that was fitted with a 256-horsepower, 6.0-liter V12 modified to burn hydrogen (it may additionally run on gasoline). It labored nicely, about 100 items have been constructed and examined, however the mission was shelved. One problem was effectivity; one other was that the engine wasn’t 100% emissions-free.
“It’s nonetheless potential, there can be some producers who try this, however we expect it’s not the correct technique as a result of we’ve got EVs. If we didn’t have the electrical vehicles we’d suppose in a different way. The similarity of a fuel-cell car to an electrical car is so shut – a lot nearer than to a gasoline-powered combustion engine – and that modified our opinion. That query is answered,” Zipse mentioned.
In hindsight, the Hydrogen 7’s fundamental contribution was displaying BMW what to not do.
Over 4 years within the making, the iX5’s drivetrain is concurrently complicated and easy. It’s complicated within the sense that the electrical energy that zaps the rear wheels into movement is generated onboard. It’s sort of just like the wooden gas-powered turbines that have been frequent throughout Europe within the aftermath of World Battle II, or like if BMW constructed a gasoline-powered X5 with a miniature oil refinery stuffed into the engine bay.
With that mentioned, you don’t want a grasp’s diploma in chemistry to know the way it works. Gaseous hydrogen enters the 2, 700-bar tanks through a filler built-in into the passenger-side quarter panel, in the identical place the place you discover the gasoline filler in a gasoline-burning X5. From there, it goes to the gasoline cell below the hood the place it reacts with oxygen from the air to create electrical energy. The water vapor emitted by this course of will get launched into the ambiance, whereas the electrical energy generated travels by way of thick, orange wires to a roughly 2-kWh lithium-ion battery pack mounted below the trunk flooring, proper over the electrical motor.
The gasoline cells come from Toyota, with whom BMW has a partnership (it isn’t simply the Supra and Z4, ), and the motor is sourced from the iX. That’s the gist of it. After all, this course of depends on a whole lot of smaller parts together with an air filter, a compressor, a high-voltage coolant pump, a humidifier with an air cooler and a management unit. It’s too early to foretell the drivetrain’s reliability and longevity, however BMW already warned that components just like the storage tanks will have to be changed after 15 years – it’s a authorized requirement in quite a few nations.
BMW pegs the system’s complete output at 401 horsepower, and the roughly 5,500-pound iX5’s driving vary checks in at as much as 313 miles when examined on the WLTP cycle utilized in Europe. Hitting 60 mph from a cease takes round 6 seconds. It doesn’t take quite a lot of powertrain wizardry to realize these figures with a battery-electric drivetrain, and a 10-year-old V8 can simply publish the identical numbers, however the primary promoting level right here is that filling the tanks with round 13 kilos of hydrogen (that’s the utmost they’ll carry) takes three to 4 minutes. It’s not sooner or slower than filling up a tank with gasoline.
Promising? Definitely, however the iX5 isn’t prepared for prime time and neither is its powertrain. BMW stresses it’s a prototype constructed completely to check the know-how in real-world circumstances. This partly explains why the iX5 is rear-wheel-drive. Because it stands, there’s not sufficient house below the hood so as to add the second electrical motor required for all-wheel-drive, although I’m informed that is on the engineering staff’s to-do checklist.
Jürgen Guldner, the hydrogen program’s common supervisor, informed me that iX5 manufacturing can be restricted to below 100 items. Some can be used as demonstrators – BMW notably must persuade lawmakers that hydrogen is a viable various to electrical know-how – whereas others can be loaned to a handful of real-world motorists.
“We’re planning to have short-term loans, possibly for every week or so, so that folks may give us suggestions,” he defined.
This strategy isn’t unprecedented. In 2008, BMW constructed a handful of electrical Mini prototypes for the same pilot program launched to realize information about EVs. The loans can be a lot shorter this time round, nevertheless.
“Based mostly on the expertise [we got from the Mini project], we determined it’s higher to offer [the car] to extra folks relatively than only one,” Guldner defined.
BMW plastered its prototypes with powertrain-specific decals so you possibly can’t mistake one for a run-of-the-mill X5. With out them, the iX5 would nonetheless stand out due to styling cues comparable to blue accents, a refined “i” emblem within the grille, and new-look wheels. Inside, the iX5 beneficial properties “hydrogen gasoline cell”-branded sill plates, the identical emblem on the passenger’s facet of the dashboard, a smattering of blue trim, plus redesigned graphics within the instrument cluster and infotainment system. There’s a helpful menu that tracks real-time hydrogen consumption and one other one which helps the driving force discover the closest fueling station … which might be a whole lot of miles away, relying on the place you might be (although I’m assured that may change within the not-too-distant future). Don’t search for a frunk; the gasoline cell hogs all the house.
Admittedly, there’s not a ton to say about how the iX5 drives – and that’s the purpose. It’s lots just like the plug-in hybrid X5 when it’s operating on battery energy, which means easy and silent, or like what I think about a battery-electric X5 would really feel like. Nothing concerning the driving expertise means that the electrical energy comes from an on-board gasoline cell relatively than from a charging station; the system makes no noise (except the driving force switches on the synthetic powertrain noise, then it sounds just like the iX), and the water vapor emitted is barely seen on a chilly day. From the driving force’s perspective, the iX5 accelerates and brakes similar to an electrical automobile, which is just about what it’s (in contrast to the outdated, hydrogen-burning 7 Sequence prototype). It is fast off the road due to the moment torque, and the brake pedal inevitably feels a bit synthetic.
Dealing with is comparatively troublesome to guage, and never merely as a result of twisty roads in northern Belgium are about as frequent as mile-long stretches of straight pavement within the Alps. BMW doesn’t make a battery-powered X5 to check the iX5 to, and the experimental SUV has no direct rivals – there’s no hydrogen-fueled model of, say, the Mercedes-Benz GLE. One of the best ways to sum it up is that, once more, it takes a flip lots just like the plug-in hybrid X5. It’s not as bottom-heavy as many of the massive, electrical SUVs that I’ve pushed (the iX involves thoughts, and I’ve taken greater than my justifiable share of turns in it) and never as playful as a non-electrified, rear-wheel-drive X5. The air suspension system’s Sport mode makes the experience markedly firmer (conversely, Consolation softens it up significantly), and a definite BMW-ness characterizes the steering. It’s not a sports activities automobile, and it wasn’t designed to be one, but it surely additionally doesn’t float right into a bend like a cruise ship.
In regular driving circumstances (those most of us encounter day by day), the iX5 is enjoyable and comfy to drive. The one-pedal driving mode might be engaged by flicking the gear selector to the left into “B” mode, and a pair of steering wheel-mounted paddles let the driving force select one among three regeneration modes. Essentially the most aggressive profile makes the brake pedal almost ineffective: you possibly can come to a whole cease by lifting off the accelerator pedal. Depart the gear selector in “D” and the iX5 coasts like another automobile.
Since that is basically a regular-production X5 (a mannequin homologated all over the world) powered by a zero-emissions drivetrain, why can’t BMW merely add it to its catalog of SUVs and let the market choose its viability? Guldner informed me that advertising and marketing a hydrogen-powered automobile isn’t so simple as it would sound. It doesn’t make sense from a enterprise perspective to put money into mass-producing the iX5 if nobody buys it, and nobody will purchase it if there’s nowhere to fill it up. The shortage of refueling infrastructure is the largest hurdle that every one hydrogen-powered vehicles have to clear. Numerous governments and third-party corporations say they’re engaged on increasing the community of refueling stations, however this can be a medium-term mission, not one that may be accomplished in months. Price is one other problem: Guldner believes the price of shopping for and operating a hydrogen-powered automobile must be similar to the price of shopping for and operating an EV, and reaching this level requires scale in addition to some heavy lifting on the engineering facet of the equation.
BMW believes that hydrogen will merge into the automotive mainstream in the course of the second half of the 2020s, assuming every part goes in accordance with plan. Till then, prototypes just like the iX5 play a vital function in serving to this comparatively new know-how attain maturity. It’s not prepared for mass manufacturing, but it surely’s already conserving its promise of loosening among the constraints related to driving an electrical automobile.
If BMW’s crystal ball is correct, hydrogen-electric vehicles might finally high EVs on many buying lists.
“You already see that in 2027 or 2028 there can be a shortage of uncooked supplies [needed to build EVs] if we proceed to ramp up manufacturing. So, that’s the place hydrogen is available in,” Zipse concluded. “It makes use of much less uncooked supplies, it’s a a lot, a lot smaller battery, the automobile is lighter, and it doesn’t want the identical charging infrastructure. You may kind of use the identical [gas station] infrastructure that we’ve got right now.”
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