And during the CleanEnergy World Tour, the BMW Group was once again able to gain significant international attention concerning hydrogen technology and its great potential.

The world's first public hydrogen filling station, opened at Munich Airport in 2000, again made a significant contribution in testing and improving the everyday qualities of this innovative drive technology. Indeed, the experience already gained at the time by the BMW Group, fuel supply companies and the operators of the filling station at Munich Airport has significantly influenced and promoted ongoing development within the CEP initiative.

This experience has also been used, inter alia, in the concept of the hydrogen filling stations now operating in Berlin, where BMW Group test cars have been filled with hydrogen regularly ever since. Operation of the world's first public hydrogen filling station will be ending in 2006 when it is replaced by the new integrated filling station in Munich.



BMW Hydrogen 7: paving the way into the future

With the launch of the BMW Hydrogen 7, the BMW Group is opening up a new era for the development of automobiles with alternative drive technologies: The BMW Hydrogen 7 is not the result of a research project, but has successfully completed the entire Product Development Process (PDP) obligatory for all new BMWs.

In this process all components of the new technology were integrated into the overall vehicle according to the same criteria applied to "regular" production cars. The BMW Hydrogen 7 has reached a level of development significantly beyond the status of all hydrogen prototypes and demonstration cars built so far and allowing homologation under the usual rules and standards in both Germany and the ECE.

The knowledge gained in the Product Development Process has not only made a decisive contribution to the driving qualities of the BMW Hydrogen 7, but has also had a positive effect on the features and qualities of all individual components. In the Product Development Process every component as well as the overall vehicle is analyzed and checked to the smallest detail determining whether the vehicle meets the requirements of series production.

Representing the firm features in the Product Development Process, the individual process steps of Development, Testing, Clearance and Signing-Off guarantee the high standards demands of a BMW Group vehicle.

Being introduced as the first hydrogen luxury performance sedan, the BMW Hydrogen 7 is a milestone - and at the same time it introduces a new era in car production. The knowledge gained in developing the car will have a significant influence on the development and production of future hydrogen car concepts, with the principle of dual-mode drive as well as the features of other components now going through the strict test of everyday driving practice.



Liquid hydrogen - the energy of the future

Ever since the start of research and development in this area, the BMW Group has given preference to the use of liquid hydrogen as the appropriate source of energy for the automobile. Compared with gaseous and highly compressed hydrogen, liquid, cryogenic hydrogen offers much higher energy density.

And comparing the amount of energy stored in a tank of the same size as cryogenic, liquid hydrogen as opposed to a car tank with gaseous hydrogen compressed to 700 bar, we see that liquid hydrogen has the advantage of offering 75 per cent more energy. Clearly, therefore, a vehicle running on liquid hydrogen has a correspondingly longer cruising range with all the practical benefits involved.

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