23 Jun 08
Mazda's RX-8 RE
Hydrogen-fuelled cars are nothing new, however, with many large manufacturers already having invested millions of pounds into research and development in this area. For example, Mazda produced a hydrogen RX-8 for a series of trials and Volkswagen also has a hydrogen fuel cell Touran under development.
Mercedes-Benz is also committed to hydrogen fuels and will probably be next to put a hydrogen car into production: the plan is to have a fully-operational hydrogen B-Class launched in 2010.
BMW has taken a different approach, building 100 hydrogen-powered 7-Series for a trial - the idea was not to demonstrate technical prowess but a way of starting a debate among politicians, fuel companies and, indeed, governments. However, the Hydrogen 7 did not include a fuel cell or an electric motor, using instead a conventional internal combustion engine powered by liquid hydrogen.
The car had a six-litre V12 445bhp engine under the bonnet but with the two fuels, the power output was reduced to 260bhp. The Hydrogen 7 offered a range of about 500 miles - 150 on hydrogen, the rest on petrol. BMW effectively 'lent' these cars to the great and the good in the world to seek opinion and luminaries such as Marks & Spencer boss Stuart Rose were recipients. Even Prince Andrew and Prince Charles had a go, but it's hard to understand what kind of qualitative information BMW were expecting to glean from the royals: a BMW spokesman said: 'They said it drove like a normal 7-Series.'
