BMW has had bi-fuel Hydrogen 7s running on hydrogen and gasoline for a while, but now the company is showing a hydrogen-only version.
The mono-fuel Hydrogen 7 uses the same internal combustion V-12 as its predecessor. Though no numbers have been released, BMW claims performance and range are increased compared to the bi-fuel sedan, and emissions are lower since gasoline has been cut from the diet. The
BMW began loaning out Hydrogen 7s in late 2006 and now has almost 100 on the road. The company points out that these are demonstration production vehicles and not prototypes. However, hydrogen vehicles won't be mass produced and sold until an infrastructure is in place to distribute the fuel. And though the vehicle itself has near-zero emissions, pollution won't be out of the picture until an environmentally friendly way of producing hydrogen fuel is found.
The Hydrogen 7 mono-fuel will be on display at the 2008 National Hydrogen Association Conference and the 2008 SAE World Congress where the results of emissions testing will be announced.