Hydrogen hiatus?

The latest manufacturer to lose faith in hydrogen is BMW, which has been conducting field tests with 100 7-Series limousines equipped with hydrogen internal combustion engines since 2000.

"There will, for the time being, be no new hydrogen test fleet," BMW's head of development Klaus Draeger told the business daily Handelsblatt.

"We will, however, continue to work on the technology (behind it)," he added, saying hydrogen remained an option for powering cars in the long term.

A BMW spokesman later told dpa news agency that company researchers would concentrate on improving hydrogen storage and combustion processes.

"We are developing a new fuel tank to stop the gas vaporizing so quickly," the spokesman said, explaining that new test vehicles were not needed for this kind of research.

Driving division

While German carmakers acknowledge they are under increasing pressure to cut their vehicles' carbon emissions, the global economic downturn has suppressed demand for automobiles, making it difficult for companies to finance the hefty investments required to develop alternative drive-train technology.

BMW's decision to roll back its hydrogen test program will help the company save millions of euros and free up resources for research aimed at increasing the efficiency of its regular engines and developing plug-and-drive electric vehicles that use conventional battery packs.

In doing so, the Bavarian manufacturer has followed the lead of Volkswagen, which has deemed hydrogen combustion unsuitable for mass production, a sentiment echoed by a number of analysts cited by Handelsblatt.

"Hydrogen technology is a dead-end," said Engelbert Wimmer from PA Consulting. "The infrastructure isn't there, and there are no effective methods for production and storage."

Stefan Bratzel from the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch-Gladbach said hydrogen fuel-cells face "major cost problems" that carmakers are unlikely to solve satisfactorily..

Daimler, however, says it remains committed to using hydrogen fuel-cells as the source of electricity for future models.

"It is good for the environment and good for people. That's why we want to bring this technology on to the market as quickly as possible," said Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche.

Author: Sam Edmonds
Editor: Susan Houlton