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Originally Posted by F32Fleet
Waste of time and resources. This is just a means of delaying the inevitable sunsetting of the ICE for passenger cars.
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This is not a hydrogen combustion vehicle, so it will do nothing to delay the ICE phase-out. In fact, it could theoretically accelerate it since some ICE applications like long-distance heavy-duty transport could have their time-to-electrification shortened by hydrogen fuel cell commercialization.
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I only say this because creating hydrogen in quantities needed is highly polluting and the gas leaks out of the vehicle's tank (Hydrogen 7 some 15 yrs ago would go empty in about a week).
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That was a hydrogen combustion vehicle. BMW is not currently pursuing that technology. They are pursuing FCEV technology along with many other players in the industry. Large sums of money are being invested and it’s unlikely to result in zero advancement.
When you blow by those eighteen wheelers on the expressway pumping out tons of NOx, you might wonder when that will end. Maybe a huge battery, right? Like 200kWh, or 300kWh, or even 500kWh? Sure, but then you're idle for four or five hours charging it, even with DC charging. And how many DC charge cycles will that battery endure before it’s spent? So that’s a massive cost-center, and it potentially creates the new issue of increasing fleet idle time. But what if there were a way to instead use a refillable battery that could be ready to go again in just a few minutes and never wear out? Enter the fuel cell. And yes, that needs refinement, transport, and infrastructure which is also a massive cost-center. So who wins? The industry is hedging on both. If you think you know the answer, invest you hard earned $$ in BEV and short the FCEV suppliers.
What does this have to do with BMW? They can sell or license the tech. But also, when the coastal me-too crew gets wind of those big rigs with refillable batteries, they are going to demand it in their X7 or X8 or iX. Or maybe not. Like I say, if you think you’re crystal ball is better than that, you know where to put your money. Fuel cells or batteries - who wins in the end? It does not have to be winner take all. It’s about covering every use case so that electric propulsion can proliferate to all types of vehicles and we get to zero tailpipe.