BMW announces 300 km/h hydrogen car!

[Chaos in 1983!]

Well it seems that hydrogen is really the future...and not with fuel cells, this uses a combustion 6.0 V12 modified to work with hydrogen!..pretty cool huh...


BMW Unveils World's Fastest Hydrogen-Powered Car

PARIS (Reuters) - German luxury carmaker BMW unveiled the world's fastest hydrogen-powered car at the Paris auto show on Wednesday, dubbed the H2R, capable of exceeding 300 kilometers (185 miles) per hour.

"Our drive toward the future is called hydrogen," BMW management board member Burkhard Goeschel said before the tarp slowly slipped off the teardrop-shaped body of the sleek race car.

Goeschel, responsible for technology and development at BMW, said the streamlined rocket car sprints from 0 to 100 kmh in about six seconds and reached a top speed of 302.4 kmh on BMW's test track at Miramas, France.

"It's called the H2R -- 'R' as in record," Goeschel said, visibly proud of the company's breakthrough achievement in the field of zero emissions.

Unlike most hydrogen-powered vehicles, the H2R doesn't operate on a fuel cell but rather uses a modified 6-litre, 12-cylinder combustion engine for its propulsion that essentially emits nothing but steam.

An advantage of the higher combustion pressure of the hydrogen-air mixture is its higher degree of efficiency, BMW added.

The company cautioned, however, that while the cars don't pollute, production of hydrogen as a fuel does entail pollution.

Hydrogen is obtained either from fossil fuels such as natural gas or by applying electrical power to water molecules. Ecologically, the problem of finding a regenerating source of primary energy remains.

While BMW is developing fuel-cell driven cars as well, it says it is concentrating on the combustion engine because the sum total of its features and characteristics offers the largest number of advantages and benefits all in one.

"We had just 10 months to develop the H2R prototype," said project manager Juergen Kuebler in a statement.

Although the outer skin is made of carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic like a Formula 1 car, Goeschel said he wasn't considering registering it for next year's racing circuit.


some pics here(from sc.net)...
http://img33.exs.cx/img33/4325/bmw3.jpg
http://img56.exs.cx/img56/2888/bmw6.jpg
http://img61.exs.cx/img61/6849/bmw10.jpg

...sorry can't find the thumbnail code on imageshack :oops:

[CSedl87]

When I thought BMW couldn't make anything uglier...

[vexor]

I'm actually not surprised that BMW is able to make an alternate fuel car that can reach the 300 km/h mark. But I am surprised that they did it in ten months, that's fast.

[mclaren_Gt]

pretty cool

300kmh with hydrogen is a nice advance, and yea i think the same
this is the future , the gas dont have much time

[ZfrkS62]

that looks like a Z4 got photochopped to hell and back. :shock: let me do some digging on this one, see if theres anything more to the story.

[nchs09]

that looks t3h ugly.. but dam fast

[RC45]

pretty cool

300kmh with hydrogen is a nice advance, and yea i think the same
this is the future , the gas dont have much time

Well - looks like the one consumable in the world that could have dragged Mexico, half of South America, the Middle East and Russia out of dire poverty and onto the world economic stage is about to dry up... ;)

So much for the USA wanting to "steal" everyone's oil... :)

I actually can't wait for the fossil fuel demand to dry up so all these 3rd world excuses for economies will STFU already and just shrivel up and die... :P ;) :lol:

[mindgam3]

pretty cool

300kmh with hydrogen is a nice advance, and yea i think the same
this is the future , the gas dont have much time

Well - looks like the one consumable in the world that could have dragged Mexico, half of South America, the Middle East and Russia out of dire poverty and onto the world economic stage is about to dry up... ;)

So much for the USA wanting to "steal" everyone's oil... :)

I actually can't wait for the fossil fuel demand to dry up so all these 3rd world excuses for economies will STFU already and just shrivel up and die... :P ;) :lol:

i dont, the smell of petrol when ur filling up isnt quite the same as hydrogen ;)

Although its not as if we havent got enough of it ;)

[adamwich]

That's really Amazing!!

[mindgam3]

n 10 months to actually develop the whole thing! I'm guessing it wouldnt take long at all to implement this in regular cars if governments are willing to make a big scheme of it. Doesen't look like this will realistically happen for another 15-20 years or more though

[evoWalo]

H2R's acceleration from 0-100KM/H is about 6 seconds. Not that impressive considering it is powered by a 6 liter V12.

In a twisted way I really want oil to dry up or reach stratospheric prices so most of us would be more inclined to switch to hydrogen. Air pollution's way too bad around the world and I'd love to experience driving in a convertible without sucking exhaust from a badly maintainted diesel.

If you want a more detailed report click here (http://www.autoweb.com.au/cms/A_102564/newsarticle.html).

Photos from various news sites.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/040924/040924_h2r_hmed_7a.hmedium.jpg
http://us1.webpublications.com.au/static/images/articles/i1025/102564_00mg.jpg
http://us1.webpublications.com.au/static/images/articles/i1025/102564_2mg.jpg

Chart below shows how hydrogen compares to current engines.

http://bioage.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/bmwh2potential.png

[RC45]

WHo cares about pollution? ;) You know you don't - because the sheer cost of a new energy source would be out of reach of the most polluted countries anyway.. ;)

[davide]

hehe, "nice" beemer.

[ZfrkS62]

WHo cares about pollution? You know you don't - because the sheer cost of a new energy source would be out of reach of the most polluted countries anyway..


Pollution won't kill the Earth, people themselves will...providing WW3 doesn't break out...i'm starting a thread on this in World Political Debate ao that we don't jam up this one with heated comments.

[DeMoN]

oh god, that car looks like a pokemon

[irrational_i]

BMW has been seriously working on hydrgen for 20+ years. I remember reading a comparitive article on a 735i (Early 90's?) with a Petrol, Petrol/Hydrogen and Hydrogen car. The hydrogen was the best except for fuel consumption at roughly 30litres/100km! (Around 12-13mpg?)

I have always supported hydrogen as the future and I think the pollution factor could be minimised using hydro-electric power. You have your power generator and water supply all at the same place too. And there are natural processes that release hydrogen as well. But only in about 10-20 years I think. When oil reserves become scarce and oil prices insane.

[Paco]

I saw this concept car on the Paris Auto Show. Here is my pic:

http://img70.exs.cx/img70/9528/000_7.jpg


It looks like Moby Dick but form is not important here, it's about the clean technology underneath which also delivers performance.

BMW has been testing with hydrogen engines for quite some time. Already 4 years ago I saw their former 7-series with this type of engine.

[Chaos in 1983!]

Hydrogen is the future IMO...the thing is producing Hydrogen for auto consumption generates pollution...so it wouldn't be a zero polluting industry :?

btw...it has the M5 wheels...hadn't noticed that...cool :D

[SPAD]

Wether we like it or not it think this is the way its gunna be.But its not all a bad thing.I think it would be great to have 1/4 of the polution that is around now but its gunna be a while befor all the gas cars r gone.I think they should still keep companies like ferrar lambo pagani with gas engines.It would not do much at all to harm the enviroment cuz der is simly not enough of them to do much harm.lol Ill also miss the purple and blue sunsets :lol:

[Wutputt]

Hydrogen is the future IMO...the thing is producing Hydrogen for auto consumption generates pollution...so it wouldn't be a zero polluting industry :?
It depends were the electricity used for producing hydrogen comes from (the most common hydrogen production method uses loads of electricity). If the electricity comes from conventional electricity plants, it idd doesn't solve the pollution problem. But if the electricity comes from wind energy, hydro enegery, solar power or nuclear energy the production of hydrogen tends to a zero pollution state.

[heyloo]

I dunno....awesome car, but how safe would it be driving a hydrogen-filled tank at 300km/h? :) Well, even if they take major safety measures, you'd still have hydrogen on your back...I dunno...I'm sticking with petrol :-)

[topgeartom]

I'm all for alternative power, and BM design, but that's fucking ugly!

[jamberl]

When I thought BMW couldn't make anything uglier...


Hahaha yeah, it looks like a beached whale.

If you ask me, it seems a little pointless, as you still have all those power stations, etc which are needed to generate the hydrogen which are still going to be polluting!! As far as I know, more toxic gases are produced by power stations than by cars already, so have we actually solved a problem here?