After BEVs, BMW calls the Toyota-powered iX5 hydrogen FCEVs the missing jigsaw piece in carbon neutrality

• BMW Group to raise sales contribution of BEVs from 9 percent to 15 percent in 2023
• More than 50 percent of sales to come from BEVs by 2030
• Past 2030, hydrogen FCEV tech is mature enough to complement BEVs

About 100 units of BMW iX5 Hydrogen will begin pilot trials this year at international markets. Unlike regular BMW X5s built in Spartanburg, USA, these hydrogen-fueled fully electric variants of the X5 are built at BMW Group’s pilot plant at its Research and Innovation Centre (FIZ) in Munich.

BMW says FIZ is the company’s interface between development and production, and is where every new model from the company’s brands is made for the first time. Around 900 people work there in the body shop, assembly, model engineering, concept vehicle construction and additive manufacturing.

In the near-term, battery EVs (BEVs) will still be BMW’s main focus in achieving carbon neutrality. BEVs contributed 9 percent of BMW Group’s total sales in 2022 but for 2023, the Group is aiming to increase this to 15 percent.

Past 2030, BMW Group says BEVs will contribute more than 50 percent of its overall sales, and around this time FCEV technology could mature to a point where it will be a potential addition to the drive technology used by BEVs.

EV charging stations are way more than H2 stations, why is BMW doing this?

The main reason the BMW Group is keen on FCEVs, despite the attacks by BEV fanatics especially Tesla’s Elon Musk, who called fuel cells ‘fools cells,’ is due to its longer range and ease of refueling.

 The other reason is that diversity in technology is just good business sense – why would you bet everything on one solution when nobody knows for sure how will happen in the next 25 years?

“Filling up the hydrogen tanks only takes three to four minutes – so the BMW iX5 Hydrogen can also provide the driving pleasure for which BMW is renowned over long distances, with just a few, short stops along the way,” said the company.

Two 700-bar tanks made of carbon-fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) hold almost 6 kg of hydrogen, enough to give it a range of 504 km - a range with BMWs own iX xDrive50 can easily match (630 km, WLTP) but remember that is not a production car, and it’s already delivering this range with a less-than-ideal, converted ICE-platform X5.

The powertrain delivers 401 PS of power – 170 PS from the fuel cell (continuous output), and 213 PS from the drive battery.

“Hydrogen is a versatile energy source that has a key role to play in the energy transition process and therefore in climate protection. After all, it is one of the most efficient ways of storing and transporting renewable energies”, said Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG. “We should use this potential to also accelerate the transformation of the mobility sector. Hydrogen is the missing piece in the jigsaw when it comes to emission-free mobility. One technology on its own will not be enough to enable climate-neutral mobility worldwide.”

Also read: BMW says in some countries, building hydrogen stations is easier than EV chargers

Zipse has also previously said that existing petrol stations can be converted into hydrogen stations in a matter of days, and the technical aspect is less complicated than hooking up DC fast chargers to the power grid.

Powered by Toyota

The BMW iX5 Hydrogen uses fuel cell technology licensed from Toyota but rather than just buying the technology, BMW is developing its own fuel cell manufacturing techniques, and this partnership with Toyota is to help them learn faster.

The Toyota-sourced individual fuel cells are assembled into fuel cell stacks made by BMW Group Plant Landshut’s light metal foundry using BMW’s self-developed sand casting technique.

It is true – hydrogen FCEV is less efficient than BEV

On its own, it is true that hydrogen FCEVs make less sense than BEVs. An FCEV is also a fully electric vehicle, except that it stores its energy in hydrogen tanks instead of battery. FCEVs also has a high voltage battery for regenerative braking, but a very small hybrid-like one.

This fundamental first step alone already makes FCEV behind BEVs. Instead of converting an energy source into electricity stored in a battery to drive a car, you are making too many unnecessary steps with hydrogen.

There are more energy losses when extracting hydrogen using electricity, and you also lose energy when using fuel cells to generate electricity using hydrogen and oxygen.

You cannot replace CO2-emitting fossil fuels with batteries and still hope to generate industrial chemicals, produce steel, grow food, and make medicine. You can do all that with hydrogen, and that's when the full potential of hydrogen is unleashed.

But hydrogen makes perfect sense when it is part of bigger energy / industrial fuel supply ecosystem, when it is used as an energy storage medium at solar or wind farms for example, or when it is used by ships and large trucks - which batteries are not well suited for. The world doesn't revolve around passenger cars.

Also read: BEV vs FCEV: Hyundai-Kia explains why Mercedes, Tesla, and VW are wrong

Output of solar and wind farms are highly dependent on weather, and some form of energy storage is needed to maintain constant power supply. Storing the energy as hydrogen is easier than batteries – which are in short supply.

You can try to find a suitable plug point to get electricity but you can’t ‘fetch’ a can of electricity. You can however, fetch a tank of gas. So hydrogen is a mobile energy source.

While its fellow BEV-only rivals dismiss hydrogen, BMW wants to point out that a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) sees hydrogen as having considerable potential for a future energy source in connection with global energy transition activities.

“Thanks to its storage and transport capabilities, hydrogen can be used for a wide variety of applications.

“Most industrialised countries are therefore adopting hydrogen strategies and backing them up with roadmaps and concrete projects. In the transport sector, hydrogen can become a further technology option, alongside battery-electric mobility, for shaping sustainable individual mobility in the long term,” said BMW’s press statement.

“However, this will depend on competitive production of sufficient quantities of hydrogen from green power, as well as expansion of the corresponding filling infrastructure, which is already being intensively pursued in many countries.

“The BMW Group welcomes and supports activities to promote innovation in Germany and Europe that will help build a hydrogen economy and accelerate production of green hydrogen. These specifically include the large-scale hydrogen projects classified as Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI).

“The projects that comprise this European Union initiative, supported in Germany by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Transport, span the entire value chain – from hydrogen production to transport to applications in industry.

“With the right conditions, hydrogen fuel cell technology has the potential to become a further pillar in the BMW Group’s drive train portfolio for local CO2-free mobility,” it added.

FCEVs in Malaysia

Closer to home, Toyota has loaned 5 units of the hydrogen fuel-cell electric Mirai to Sarawak, supporting the state’s ambition of developing a hydrogen economy.

Note that apart from hydrogen fuel cells, Toyota is also developing hydrogen combustion engines. The idea is to allow users to keep their existing cars by selling retrofit kits to convert petrol engines in hydrogen-burning ones. 

There are no plans to introduce the BMW iX5 Hydrogen here in Malaysia, owing to hydrogen’s even less developed refueling infrastructure (vs BEV charging). For the next 10 years, BEV will remain as the BMW Group Malaysia’s main focus.