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BMW Turns Reporters Loose on New Hydrogen 7 Bi-Fuel Luxury Sedan in Berlin

BERLIN, NOVEMBER 13 – International journalists took to the streets and roads in and around the German capital to try out for themselves the new limited-production bi-fuel BMW Hydrogen 7 luxury sedan (H&FCL Oct. 06) - and with nobody riding shotgun.

Paired in teams of two, the first batch of automotive and technical writers were handed the keys to ten pre-production cars (plus one in reserve) of ultimately 100. They were given a map, some basic instructions and told, “go” exactly one week ago for a half-day drive around the western parts of the city and into the country, including a full-bore 90 mph sprint along a stretch of Autobahn plus a stop at a hydrogen fueling station for a hands-on demonstration of refueling with liquid hydrogen (no problems there, even for the Technically Challenged).

Overall, BMW said it expected some 300 reporters to slip behind the wheels of the 260 HP, V-12 engined cars during international launch festivities to find out first-hand what driving a hydrogen-fueled car is all about.

First reaction: A “spectacularly unspectacular” driving experience, as BMW management board member Klaus Draeger put it - correctly - in his welcoming remarks. Unspectacular in the sense that, other than a slight change in engine pitch when switching to gasoline from hydrogen and back by pressing the “H2" button on the steering wheel, there was no discernible difference between the two driving modes. And you had to listen pretty carefully to hear the slight click from an opening valve during the actual switching maneuver.

Unusual for an event of this sort, BMW urged the reporters to go by themselves, with no worried engineers hovering in the back seat - an indication of BMW’s confidence in the maturity of the car and of the hydrogen system. But this writer, prone to losing his way under the best of circumstances and slightly worried about winding up on the wrong side of the Polish border a mere 65 miles away, elected to ask an engineer to come along anyway - a smart move because it gave us a chance to ask lots of questions during the ride.

(A full report on BMW’s launch will appear in the upcoming December online and print issues of The Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter.)

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