BMW Reveals i8 Hydrogen Fuel Cell Prototype
By Paulo Acoba
Toyota has its Mirai, Honda has the FCX Clarity and secretly BMW has been holding out on the general public with their hydrogen powered i8.
It looks like BMW has been working on Hydrogen fuel cell technology for a long time. In 2000, BMW first started working on hydrogen fuel cell technology but when they formed a partnership with Toyota just two years ago, only then did their program “pick up steam”(pun intended.) By 2020, BMW hopes to introduce a Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicle to market.
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BMW’s take on Hydrogen Fuel cell vehicle technology has been markedly different with this i8. For one, most car manufacturers focus on cars, SUV or trucks to highlight their FCV’s. BMW chose to showcase this technology early on with a sports car. Specs on the i8 FCV are sparse but we do know that with 700 bar of hydrogen on tap, the i8 has the capability to store over 4 kg of hydrogen. That’s good enough for 217 miles of range and when paired to its electric motor, produces 242 HP. A run to 60 MPH in six seconds is more than respectable.
For now it looks like BMW will stick to large sedans and SUV’s for this hydrogen technology. BMW admits that if they didn’t go with a plug-in hybrid for the 2015 BMW i8, hydrogen would’ve been the next choice. Hydrogen’s biggest stumbling block as of late has been separating itself from its carbon fossil fuel counterpart, which is currently used to produce 95 percent of the world’s hydrogen.