News

BMW/GM Joint Hydrogen Project

April 14, 2003 by Jeff Shepard

BMW Group and General Motors Corp. (GM) have announced that they will jointly develop refueling devices for liquid hydrogen vehicles. The collaborative work will center around setting global standards, establishing specifications for suppliers and finding the best technical and cost effective solution.

"In the long term, we are expecting a nationwide network of 10,000 hydrogen filling stations in Germany," said Christoph Huss, BMW’s head of Science and Traffic Policy. "Liquid hydrogen provides the most convenient way in transporting hydrogen fuel before a hydrogen pipeline infrastructure is in place. By teaming together, we will help bring about the liquid hydrogen infrastructure faster."

GM and BMW’s goal is to have affordable and compelling hydrogen vehicles for sale by 2010 and the companies need to concentrate on the storage and handling technology to achieve that goal.

"We want to accelerate the progress being made on the distribution and on-board storage of liquid hydrogen as the future fuel," stated Dr. Lawrence Burns, GM’s vice president of Research, Development and Planning. "Both compressed and liquid hydrogen hold promise to be used in hydrogen vehicles. The density of hydrogen in a liquid state is especially attractive with respect to fuel distribution and vehicle range."