BMW Hydrogen 7

BMW makes great machines. Period. The M3, 5,6, and 7-series are powerful, sleek, but made pretty much just for those of us with extremely well-paying jobs. When you watch Cribs or any other show that feature celebrity's rides, there is always a BMW in there somewhere. Now, you hear a lot about Honda, Toyota and Chevy as being at the forefront of lessening our dependence on foreign oil through electric vehicles, biodiesel-powered or ethanol-powered vehicles, but not so much as automotive companies that stranglehold the pricey market. BMW is trying to change that with the introduction of their Hydrogen 7 car. With a 7-series body, this car can run on both liquid hydrogen and gasoline. The switch can be made with a push of a button, according to BMW. Although there are only five hydrogen fueling stations worldwide with two more coming to the US, along with 100 Hydrogen 7's, BMW thinks hydrogen could be a great way of turning away from petroleum.


Photo from Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 and Sachi Gahan

This could very well be true if improvements are made on the current standing of the vehicle. As it stands now, the car has a 12-cylinder engine that puts out 260 horsepower. Here you can read BMW's thoughts on the car, including this arguable statement, "[hydrogen] is the only fuel that can allow for a reduction in the overall emission cycle, while meeting our energy needs in a sustainable way. Besides, not many fuels can be produced from renewable sources such as sun, wind, water and biomass." I do not know how they can say hydrogen is the "only" way to reduce the overall emission cycle, but they do and I argue that because, as I have talked about in previous posts, biodiesel looks much better at this point than hydrogen, especially the algae type. Maybe when we are in "I,Robot" times and can fuel our Audi's easily with hydrogen at specified locations will hydrogen take over. But think about how much work and research will have to be done to get us there. A lot. As of now, being able to get hydrogen to a point in which a car can convert it, as in hydrocarbons, for energy produces more emissions than gasoline-powered vehicles.

Here is Wiki's article on hydrogen powered cars which has a lot of great information about the whole process. It talks about the negative impacts including the fact that producing hydrogen uses fossil fuels.