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Global Economy

BMW relies on the hydrogen car

The starting signal has been given: The Munich car manufacturer BMW will in future produce fuel cells at its plant in Garching north of Munich. CEO Oliver Zipse, together with the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder, heralded the start of production of the fuel cell system for the new vehicle. The BMW boss also sees the fuel cell as an opportunity to operate in a more climate-neutral manner, provided that the hydrogen can be obtained sustainably.

"Hydrogen is the last piece of the puzzle on the way to emission-free mobility," says Zipse. Söder also wants to support the technology with almost 500 million euros from the state treasury. "There is brutal competition for raw materials in electromobility. Hydrogen can ease the tension here," says Söder.

Own fuel cell production

With the political tailwind, the Munich car manufacturer now wants to gain experience for an ambitious project. From 2023, BMW will initially produce a small series of the iX5 Hydrogen with almost one hundred vehicles. According to the company, they are not yet sold to customers, but are "used in the main hydrogen markets for test and demo purposes". In the long term, up to the end of the 2020s, the carmaker "sees great potential for use in series production." In other words: BMW wants to keep the possibility open of selling such vehicles in large numbers soon.

Development board member Frank Weber is against a discussion of whether there will only be battery-powered electric cars or only fuel cell cars. BMW assumes that both will coexist in the future. "For the resilience of our industry, it is important that we rely on both systems," Weber continued.

Other car manufacturers are also driving research into fuel cells. The manufacturers Audi from Ingolstadt and Mercedes from Stuttgart have designed hydrogen-powered models. The companies are not currently planning series production. "If we use green hydrogen as an energy source for our vehicles, it will not be used in defossilization in other areas, for example in the steel industry," said Audi CEO Markus Duesmann in April.

Combustion engines before the end

The German car manufacturers are forced to deal with alternative drives. At the beginning of June, the European Parliament decided that from 2035 no new cars with combustion engines would be allowed to be registered. The last word has not yet been spoken at the federal level. The federal government would like to bring about a compromise, according to which e-fuels will still be permitted. E-fuel refers to synthetic fuels that are produced from water and carbon dioxide using electricity.

The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and the resulting rapid increase in energy prices have once again fueled the discussion about alternative drives for cars. Gasoline and diesel are more expensive than ever, and now that the tank discount has expired, prices are likely to continue to rise. Politics and business are therefore continuing to look for alternative drive systems for passenger cars.

A drive mix for the mobility of the future

The mobility of the future will require a mix of different drive technologies, predicts Christian Trapp. He researches environmentally friendly drives at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich. Pure electric vehicles would be ideal for short distances in the city. Combustion engines with hydrogen or with e-fuels as well as fuel cell vehicles are particularly suitable for longer distances and heavy transport, but also for trains, ships and airplanes.

In his view, there are two challenges for hydrogen-powered vehicles: First, there should be more filling stations for hydrogen. This would give people planning security to "really be able to drive where they want to go" without having to plan fueling in advance. That increases acceptance. Secondly, it is important that green hydrogen can be refueled there. This means that the hydrogen is produced using regenerative electricity from wind power or solar energy, for example.

In the future, the demand for green hydrogen will probably increase enormously when industry, transport and cars need hydrogen. Since it is rather unlikely that Germany could produce these quantities alone. International alliances, such as those concluded by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) with Canada and Qatar, are a solution, and "I think that's the right path that we should be taking," said Trapp further.

The share of alternative drives in new cars continues to rise

Germans are increasingly buying cars with alternative drives. According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), in the first seven months of this year, 44.2 percent of all new registrations were e-cars, hybrids or plug-in hybrids or equipped with gas or hydrogen engines. This is an increase of 13 percent compared to the same period last year.

Audi sold the most purely electric vehicles. With a fleet share of 8.8 percent and around 23,000 new cars, the parent company VW was the highest-volume German brand with purely electric cars. Car buyers can apply for state subsidies until the end of 2022. Subsidies of a maximum of 9000 euros are available for the purchase of electric cars. 6000 euros should come from the state, 3000 euros from the manufacturer.

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