By EWAN KENNEDY in Berlin
20 November 2006

Driving enthusiasts of the world rejoice. We have just had a long test drive of a car that points to the future of the automobile – and very much like what we have seen.

Next year BMW will introduce a model called the Hydrogen 7. Quite simply it’s a BMW 7 Series saloon with the ability to run on clean hydrogen fuel. The really good news is that it very much follows the German maker’s philosophy of sheer driving pleasure.

Powered by a modified version of the V12 6.0-litre engine already seen in the BMW 760iL, the hydrogen-powered car still has plenty of straight-line performance. While the stop watch says it’s slower than the standard petrol engine, the seat-of-the-pants feel says the engine is just fine.

The engine note is deep and purposeful, not unlike that of a modern high-tech turbo-diesel. Throttle response when running the big BMW on hydrogen is just as good, perhaps a fraction better, than when the engine is on petrol.

At this stage Hydrogen 7s need to be able to run on either hydrogen or petrol. That’s primarily because the infrastructure simply isn’t there to realistically exclusively use hydrogen. The fuel range on hydrogen currently is only about 200 kilometres, whereas petrol can see the big BMW travel a further 500 km. At this stage there are only five hydrogen filling stations in Germany.

If the engine was set up to run only on hydrogen it would have more power and a significantly longer range. The latter not only because the engine itself would be more efficient if tuned for just the one fuel, but also because removing the petrol tank would make space for a larger hydrogen cylinder.

When burnt in an engine, hydrogen produces no greenhouse damaging carbon or hydrocarbons and only tiny amounts of nitric oxides. Making it considerably cleaner than petrol or diesel as a fuel.

Hydrogen has to be stored in liquid form, which means cooling it to minus 253 degrees, or only 20 degrees above absolute zero. In the Hydrogen 7 it’s in an insulated tank behind the rear seat, sitting over the rear axle.

Fuelling is carried out in normal service stations. It’s a somewhat slow and clumsy procedure as a heavily insulated fuel line has to be attached to the filler on the car. Once the line is in place everything is computer controlled, all the driver has to do is remove the refuelling line when signalled to do so.

Initially only 100 BMW Hydrogen 7s are to be built and they will be offered on a lease-type basis to some very important people. BMW won’t say who they are at this stage, but names like Al Gore, Susan Sarandon and David Suzuki, all prominent environmentalists have been bandied about.

What BMW has, unofficially, admitted at this stage is that no Australians are in line to lease one of the first-100 Hydrogen 7s. Sadly, this ties in with an apparent lack of concern about the environment by many people living in our country. A concern fuelled by our government and highlighted by its refusal to ratify the Kyoto agreement.

But who knows, John Howard is finally showing signs of admitting there is an environmental problem. If he continues to swing in the right direction it might just be possible to get him into the seat of a BMW Hydrogen 7. I’ll ring my contacts at BMW Australia and see what they think…

BMW engineers feel Australia has an ideal climate for hydrogen cars because we have an abundance of sunlight that can be used to supply the energy required to produce hydrogen for fuel. If we can only get our politicians on side Australia could become a world leader in this field.