BMW has launched the pilot fleet of the hydrogen-powered iX5. But what exactly is it, isn’t it explosive, and how does it work? All questions that we’ll answer today.

What is hydrogen?

We can do a fully detailed explanation of what happens but we’ll keep it simple. Water gets split by an electrochemical process into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is then stored awaiting to be put into a fuel cell for further use.
When the vehicle comes up to a refueling station, the nozzle gets attached and hydrogen gets pumped into the fuel cell. On larger vehicles like trucks, this will still take quite some time but in an FCEV like the iX5, this process takes only about 3-4 minutes.
The hydrogen then gets split again by adding oxygen to the mix and this generates electricity and water which you’ll sometimes see the vapor coming out of the car.

The electricity gets sent to the back where you’ll find a battery pack that can charge up like a mild-hybrid and to the rear electric motor which was borrowed from the iX.

The current efficiency for creating hydrogen is between 60-70% so whilst it’s not as efficient as just running an EV on electricity, the benefit is that this can be stored for later use whereas electricity can only be used when it is produced. This leaves a lot of unused energy at times when no one is using energy. Last year Germany alone had 6 tW of energy that went unproduced because there was no demand. This is the equivalent of 100.000 tonnes of H2.

So can I charge the iX5?

No, whilst the iX5 does have a battery in the trunk, it doesn’t allow the car to be charged in a socket. The battery will get charged by energy regeneration from the electric motor during deceleration and will add an extra oomph of power to the car under acceleration.

The great thing about this is, is that driving wise. It drives like other EVs. The iX5 Hydrogen is a pilot phase car and thus it’s only available with rear-wheel-drive. Which is perfect for a BMW. The instant torque can light up the tires when you want it and it still provides a calm yet dynamically capable car.

Does the iX5 have to compensate to be a BMW? Far from it. And this has been one of BMW’s strengths in this goal towards a more sustainable future: it’s not changing its cars into different models trying to separate them (except for the iX).

The upcoming Neue Klasse platform will provide the basis for a single model to have different propulsion choices within the same body design.

Isn’t hydrogen super explosive?

In theory yes, but there’s a lot more that comes with it. 10-15 years there was real concern about whether putting hydrogen in fuel tanks was a safe thing to do. But technology has moved along quite nicely and restrictions have pushed safety in these fuel tanks. The tank is the most structurally solid part of the car and it’ll bend long before it gets punctured. That being said, there still is an inherent risk but controlling it through regulations means the risk factor is equal to an ICE or EV blowing up.

But if electricity is more efficient, why should we use hydrogen?

As said before, hydrogen can be stored for later use whereas electricity requires instant consumption. It won’t make BEVs obsolete but it does have a few advantages over BEVs.
One of those things is critical raw materials. The big debate on BEV cars always is how much mining has to be done to create the batteries we are using in the cars of today. An FCEV requires 90% less critical raw materials and they need over 100 kg less raw materials to be created. Less critical materials and lower weight means you’re creating a car with a less heavy ecological footprint.

Another thing to consider is that BEVs aren’t useful for all types of people using vehicles today. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to charge their car in the vicinity of their house which leads to not being able to charge your car when you’re not using it and thus having to charge the car during use and that means playing the waiting game.
If you’re on the road quite a lot and doing long distances in a day, waiting for the BEV to charge is also a loss of time when you could be operational.

There’s also the fact that batteries tend to underperform when it gets colder. We all see it happening during winter when the temperatures drop to about 0 °C but in some regions around the world, it gets even colder to the point you can’t use BEVs. Hydrogen is a great alternative here as it’s not affected by cold temperatures. The only thing you might produce is some popsicles at the “exhaust”.
Another case where BEVs are lacking is towing. Batteries just aren’t energy dense enough and don’t recharge fast enough to go towing heavy loads around for longer distances.

A lot of these issues mentioned above are very relevant to the transport sector where long-haul trucks on batteries just won’t work. There are a few EV trucks out at the moment but they need more than 100 kWh of batteries per 100 kilometers. So the range of them is between 300 and 400 km. Then comes the added issue of charging it. A car today will charge 20-80% in 20-30 minutes but trucks charge at similar speeds meaning that they’ll be stuck at a fast charger for 1:30 hours or more.

So then this must be the future and why isn’t BMW putting this into production?

The answer lies a bit in the middle. Contrary to what politicians think, there’s not a single solution to the way we’ll move about in the future. BMW sees it as a synergy between BEVs and FCEVs (we also think e-fuels could play their part but that’s a different story for another time).
So then, why isn’t this in production yet? What BMW launched here is a pilot phase of the iX5. Much like what they did with the BMW ActiveE. The infrastructure isn’t where it’s supposed to be yet and releasing it small-scale means BMW can observe behavior more directly and change things for full production.

The first hydrogen-production BMWs will sit on the Neue Klasse architecture BMW is currently working on.
It’s great to see OEMs pushing for a more sustainable future than what governments are asking them to do but BMW still manages to keep sheer driving pleasure as one of its core values

BMW iX5 Hydrogen | The Car Of The Future?