Has the H2 car been waiting?

Hydrogen has been the future for a few decades. Toyota put its eggs in the H2 basket, but drastically underestimated how quickly battery electric vehicles (BEVs) would gain market share. The original Mirai was a decent point in the water, but hardly exciting enough to compete with halo vehicles like the Tesla Model S or Porsche Taycan, and the 2021 version was only a slight improvement. With the iX5 Hydrogen, however, BMW is taking a different tack. I recently had the opportunity to drive one in Belgium.

While the Toyota Mirai is a car you can theoretically buy, the BMW iX5 Hydrogen is more of a proof of concept. But it’s not a rough prototype: it’s a polished vehicle, part of a “pilot fleet”. Basically, BMW has taken some current BMW X5s, not bothered to install the gearbox and fossil fuel engine, and installed hydrogen gas cylinders alongside an electric motor. It’s probably a bit more complicated than that, but when you climb inside there’s not much to tell you what the power source is (other than the big ‘BMW iX5 Hydrogen’ stickers on the side, of course. ..)

However, the cars in the pilot fleet are not a new variant from the production line. They look more like the electrified Minis that BMW used to test the idea of ​​electric vehicles before the i3 was launched. Fewer than 100 will be produced, and after the event I attended in Belgium, the iX5 cars on display will go around the world for real-world testing. However, BMW does not produce these vehicles because it does not believe in its electric vehicle strategy. They are more of a hedged bet, so the company will be ready if hydrogen takes place. There is a roadmap for future vehicles, but their timeline is not yet set.

BMW iX5 Hydrogen: driving experience

While the iX5 Hydrogen feels like a standard BMW SUV inside, and not even as high-tech as the iX, it drives like an EV. There are even paddles on the steering wheel to vary regeneration levels. The fuel cell can supply 125 kW (170 hp) continuous, but this is augmented by a small 2 kWh battery that can deliver an additional 170 kW (231 hp), giving a total of 295 kW (401 hp) under acceleration. This allows the iX5 Hydrogen to reach 62 mph in less than six seconds, which is much faster than any current production hydrogen car.

Unlike other hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (HFCEVs) I’ve driven, such as the original Toyota Mirai or the Hyundai Nexo, there’s no lag in throttle response in the iX5 Hydrogen in comparison with a BEV. It also weighs about the same as an X5 plug-in hybrid, so handling is what you’d expect from a sporty BMW SUV. BEVs are generally heavier. So, thankfully, there’s no sacrifice in driving pleasure for green credentials with the BMW iX5 Hydrogen.

However, BMW electric vehicles are also great to drive. The i3 was, the i4 is, and the iX isn’t bad either. What BMW hopes to deliver with the iX5 Hydrogen is long-range capabilities. This HFCEV holds 6kg of H2, giving it a range of 313 miles. That’s actually less than some of BMW’s flagship EVs, such as the i4 or iX xDrive50, but BMW counters this with the usual hydrogen claim of short recharge times: 3-4 minutes. This was demonstrated at a CMB.TECH H2 station during the Belgian event I attended. I’ll get into that a bit later, but on the face of it, this means you could cover longer distances faster in this car than any current EV.

BMW iX5 Hydrogen: normal and practical luxury SUV

BMW also hasn’t compromised significantly on interior space to fit the H2 drivetrain. This is the case with the Mirai, which has a small cargo area and rear seats that cannot be folded forward to extend it. There’s an obvious transmission tunnel in the center of the iX5 Hydrogen, which has been repurposed to house one of the H2 gas tanks. This will make the middle back seat less comfortable than the outer two. But the luggage space in the back has not been altered by this car’s powertrain. You can still fold down the rear seats and get the capability expected of a BMW X5. So here again the iX5 Hydrogen feels like a standard SUV.

Essentially, what BMW has created in the iX5 Hydrogen is a great vehicle to drive, with the performance and smooth delivery of a BEV and otherwise feeling like a typical X5 with excellent equipment and comfort slow It also has a refueling experience similar to an internal combustion engine. So the question mark over the iX5 Hydrogen has nothing to do with the car itself. It is the concept of HFCEV in general. This is a debate that can be as heated as vaccination, immigration and whether the last season of Game of Thrones should have existed.

BMW iX5 Hydrogen: Refueling infrastructure

On a practical level at the moment, the availability of hydrogen charging stations makes the electric vehicle charging network seem ubiquitous. In the US, outside of California there are hardly any H2 stations and even fewer that are currently operating. South America only seems to have one in Colombia, and the UK has seven stations with only three or four currently operating. In Europe, Spain and Portugal have none and only Germany is reasonably endowed with 93. So you can see why the BMW iX5 Hydrogen is a pilot fleet rather than a product yet. It is only a viable vehicle option in some limited areas.

There are some big plans to roll out hydrogen stations across the EU to support H2 fueled trucks. However, in the longer term, the viability of hydrogen revolves around whether we can get to a point where there is enough surplus renewable energy and a water supply ready to generate it green, in volume enough and at low cost. Currently, most hydrogen is produced by non-green means via methane steam reforming and is more expensive than electricity.

It is now common knowledge among those interested in electric vehicles that hydrogen powertrains are considerably less efficient than batteries. If you charge a BEV from the same electricity source that generates hydrogen for an HFCEV, you will need almost three times the power to travel the same distance. So hydrogen starts out at a huge operating cost disadvantage.

At the BMW iX5 Hydrogen press event, it was argued that this could be mitigated by more efficient use of renewable energy supply worldwide. Countries with more sun and wind can produce more energy with the same amount of solar panels and turbines than others, so they can generate hydrogen for export. This can allow them to transfer energy to countries less endowed with renewable energy resources. The numbers presented by BMW seemed plausible, but for now it’s all theory.

It’s also worth noting that while there’s a lot of mythology surrounding the longevity of BEV batteries, such as that they’ll need to be replaced after three years (unlikely when most now have eight-year warranties), there a fixed lifetime for H2 tanks. This was written on the fuel port of the car I drove in 2033. After that, the tanks will need to be replaced, which will be expensive. As with all technologies, HFCEVs have disadvantages and advantages.

BMW iX5 Hydrogen: a taste of the future?

So has BMW proven that H2 is the future with the iX5 Hydrogen? Probably not, but it has advanced the argument and at least shown that an HFCEV can be a comfortable, high-performance, luxury experience. No previous HFCEV has been so desirable. Most importantly, it shows that the choice between a BEV and an HFCEV isn’t about the car itself, but about where we’re going with the energy infrastructure, and that’s far from true. If you mainly charge a BEV at home, the HFCEV is less convenient and probably much more expensive to run. But if you drive very long distances and the hydrogen infrastructure emerges as the H2 evangelists hope, there may be a place for it. The BMW iX5 Hydrogen convinced me that H2 cars can be great to drive. However, the viability of hydrogen for personal transport remains in question.

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