For the future, Mercedes-Benz and Audi are relying entirely on the battery car – but BMW is also investing in the hydrogen car. With fuel cells from Toyota, BMW wants to put the BMW iX5 Hydrogen on the road in a small series from November. For CEO Oliver Zipse, this is just the beginning: A “real series offer” is already being examined.
“It will definitely be within this decade. The sooner, the better,” said Zipse. There he gave the go-ahead for the production of the fuel cell system for the hydrogen BMW. For drivers, the hydrogen car offers everyday advantages that are familiar from petrol or diesel engines: quick refueling and long ranges, even in the cold. But the big question is whether there is enough green hydrogen and what the whole thing costs. Expert criticizes inefficiency For industry expert Stefan Bratzel, the most important argument against hydrogen cars is “the high energy consumption for the production of hydrogen”. Produce hydrogen with electricity, then use a fuel cell to generate electricity from the hydrogen for the electric motor – a large part of the energy is lost In 2030, every second BMW should drive with it. But in view of the increasingly scarce raw materials for the batteries on the one hand and insufficient charging networks on the other, Zipse does not want to put everything on one card. Hydrogen is “the missing piece of the puzzle that e-mobility can complete where battery-electric drives will not prevail,” he said. Toyota and Hyundai are already selling such cars, in manageable numbers. The Chinese car manufacturer Changan has just started series production, and Opel has a fuel cell van on offer. Mercedes-Benz discontinued its fuel cell SUV two years ago – but Daimler is developing and building fuel cells together with Volvo and wants to bring a truck with it to market in 2025. Porsche, Toyota, Mazda, Subaru, Kawasaki and Yamaha are working on using hydrogen in gasoline engines. Hydrogen X5s are not being sold for the time being So BMW is not alone in the field. The Munich-based company has the fuel cells for its iX5-Hydrogen delivered by Toyota. They are assembled in Garching and mounted in Munich with the hydrogen tanks and the in-house electric motors in the bodies that come from the US plant in Spartanburg. The 100-vehicle pilot series will not be sold, but will be tested by motorists in everyday use in Europe, the USA, Japan, Korea and China. In five years, BMW could then be ready for mass production – provided the market cooperates. Bratzel says that a quick ramp-up is not feasible. “We’re talking about long periods of time. That won’t help us over the cliffs of the next few years.” And “it’s a costly affair,” said the head of the CAM Auto Institute in Bergisch Gladbach. China wants to have one million hydrogen cars on the road by 2030. Japan and Korea also see potential. “Especially in East Asia, there is widespread investment in infrastructure,” said Zipse. And with the truck, hydrogen is also on the road, said BMW Board Member for Development Frank Weber. Hydrogen is also well suited as a storage medium for temporarily excess electricity. It can also be transported over very long distances. “Of course that’s an advantage,” says Bratzel. But “you also have to keep an eye on the costs”. However, the experts do not agree on this. “Transporting hydrogen is more economical than building power lines,” said Weber. Even with the infrastructure, the question of costs is controversial. In Germany, for example, there are currently only around 100 hydrogen filling stations, in Austria just six. A network has to be set up for trucks anyway – but if cars also fill up with hydrogen, the network would have to be much denser, “that’s very expensive,” says Bratzel. The management consultancy McKinsey and the hydrogen association Hydrogen Council argue, on the other hand, that if 10 percent of the car fleet were to run on hydrogen, this could save high investments for peaks in the electricity and charging network and “more than compensate for the costs for hydrogen filling stations”. One means Against dependencies For Zipse, a crucial question is also “how Europe wants to ensure strategic access to the crucial raw materials for e-mobility”. New dependencies threatened. Bratzel says: “We will encounter shortages of batteries in the next few years.” With the fuel cell, BMW is “a little more broadened”. Electric cars with batteries should remain cheaper for small cars and in the middle class than with fuel cells, says bratzel Former VW boss Herbert Diess once described hydrogen as the champagne of the energy transition. But there is also a market for champagne. Zipse is “convinced that there is also a market for fuel cell cars in the premium segment in Europe”.
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