BMWs Hydrogen 7 Ready For The Road
7 Series Photos
Going Green With the Seven-Series
One of the most important vehicles that BMW will be displaying at the Mondial De LAutomobile in Paris at the end of the month probably wont be grabbing eyes like a lime-green supercar, or a decked-out SUV concept. No, the BMW Hydrogen7 looks like a normal, long-wheelbase 7-Series, with a standard silver paintjob and no stickers. Its unadorned exterior is deceiving, however, as its not only one of the most advanced vehicles to debut at the show, but will be BMWs first production hydrogen automobile, a vehicle six years in the making.
Because hydrogen fueling stations are few and far between (even in Germany), the Hydrogen7 was designed as a dual-fuel vehicle, with separate tanks for gasoline and hydrogen. The car maintains a 19.5-gallon gasoline tank, which is good for a range of 310 miles, as well as a hydrogen tank thats capable of holding 17.6 lbs worth of liquefied hydrogen that has a range of 125 miles.
As its appearance might suggest, the Hydrogen7 is closely related to the 760Li long wheelbase, but theres a reason for this. BMW chose the extended version in order to accommodate both the gas tank, as well the 17.6-lb hydrogen tank, which is stored in front of it. As such, 4.5 inches of cabin space has been compromised, which makes it slightly less roomy than the standard LWB 7-Series (but plenty roomy by normal standards).
A bit more on the H2 tank that the 7 uses; it is a special fuel tank developed by Magna-Steyr, which is comprised of several sandwiched layers of high-tech thermal insulation. The reason that this is done is to prevent the liquid hydrogen from heating up and vaporizing, whereupon it cannot be used by the engine. BMW claims that the tank is so thermal efficient that a cup coffee would take approximately 80 days to cool down from boiling to a temperature that wouldnt burn a drinkers mouth.
Inevitably, the design is not 100-percent thermal efficient; heat does manage to penetrate the tank. When pumped in, liquid hydrogen remains at -418F, but, because the tank is not actively chilled, evaporation occurs at a rate of a half tank per nine days. Imagine leaving the 7 fully fueled at the airport, while only to come back after a week of traveling to find that half a tank had disappeared. This issue might still need a bit of work.
Aside from the engines adaptation to run on liquid hydrogen, which includes new injectors in the manifold, the 6.0L V12 is more or less the same as the standard motor. Running on hydrogen, it produces significantly less power at 256-hp, and 288 lb-ft of torque (versus 445-hp, 443 lb-ft). This is good enough, mind you, to give the Hydrogen 7 a 0 to 60 mph time of about nine seconds (approximately three seconds slower than the 750Li and four seconds slower than the 760Li), and a top speed of 143 mph.
As with the hydrogen-powered Mazda RX-8 and Honda FCX, the BMW Hydrogen 7 will be leased to selective customers, though its fleet will be capped at 100 units.
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