A few days ago, BMW announced in Munich that it has officially begun to test the BMW i Hydrogen NEXT hydrogen fuel cell model on the European road. The BMW i Hydrogen NEXT is a pure electric vehicle that truly converts hydrogen into electricity through fuel cells, thus achieving zero CARBON dioxide emissions.
In BMW's diverse drive system strategy, hydrogen fuel cell technology is a sustainable plan for traditional combustion engines, plug-in hybrid systems and battery electric vehicles, which BMW believes can become the future successor to battery-powered models.
The BMW i Hydrogen NEXT can be filled with liquid hydrogen fuel in 3 to 4 minutes, just like conventional fuel models, and hydrogen fuel cells can guarantee an almost constant range in any weather condition, especially unpersposed by low temperatures.
Previously, BMW i Hydrogen NEXT's fuel cell system, hydrogen storage tank, buffer battery and vehicle central control unit have been tested hundreds of times, and the entire system has been tested before it is allowed to enter the actual road test.
Currently, bmw i Hydrogen NEXT is commissioning the central control unit and system software on the actual road. Intensive testing is now carried out mimicking real everyday vehicle conditions, which have been carried out for thousands of kilometers in real traffic conditions, and engineers have to make a final assessment of the efficiency, safety, convenience and reliability of all components of the system based on the collected data.
On the BMW i Hydrogen NEXT, combined with the hydrogen fuel cell is BMW's fifth-generation eDrive system, which is currently in use on the BMW iX3, BMW iX and BMW i4. The current output of the BMW i Hydrogen NEXT fuel cell is 120 kilowatts, and the overall output power of the buffer battery pack is 275 kilowatts, equivalent to 374 horsepower, which is equivalent to the current power of BMW's strongest in-line six-cylinder gasoline engine.
BMW has planned to launch a BMW X5 model with hydrogen fuel cells by the end of 2022.