BMW Looking to Diesels, Hybrids and Hydrogen Combustion Engines
14 April 2006
BMW is a believer in the future of the combustion engine. Speaking at the North American International Auto Show, Tom Purves, Chairman and CEO of BMW (US) Holding Corp, outlined the short-, medium- and long-term technologies which the company believes will keep the combustion engine relevant into the future.
The short-term solution (while recognizing that BMW is still working on making its gasoline engines more efficient through the use of technologies such as gasoline direct injection) is diesel. The medium-term is hybrids. And the longer-term is hydrogen internal combustion engines, according to Purves.
BMW as a company has a fairly robust diesel business. The majority of the vehicles it sells in Germany and the UK are diesels; in Italy and France, the percentage jumps to 90%.
Just as BMW delivers the performance offering in the gasoline engine market, so too are our diesels the performance leader in theirs.
However, bringing a diesel to a market that due to regulation does not include California and New York makes no business sense to us...and that is why when BMW brings a diesel to the US, it will be one that can be sold in all 50 states.—Tom Purves
For the medium term, BMW is working on the two-mode hybrid technology with GM and DaimlerChrysler, along with its own initiatives such as the Concept X3 Efficient Dynamics (earlier post) and the TurboSteamer (earlier post).
And in the longer term,
BMW is committed to internal combustion engines—not fuel cells—powered by hydrogen.
BMW has been the foremost company in hydrogen research for over 30 years, and we believe that only a hydrogen-powered car can deliver power, range and virtually zero emissions. And also be fun to drive.
...within the next two years, BMW will present a hydrogen version of the 7 Series to the public. These will be real cars, clean cars, driving real miles and—as I can personally attest—delivering BMW levels of performance.
Unlike most in the industry, BMW is looking to a liquid hydrogen storage solution, rather than a compressed hydrogen solution. The 7-Series vehicle to which Purves referred will be a bi-fuel implementation running on gasoline and hydrogen. (Earlier post.)
As i said before, BMW should be given all of our respect for keep trying making a good liquid hydrogen solution. They are going their own way and is inclucing REAL perfromance in their dreams for a GREAT engine!!!
Posted by: Paul Berg | 14 April 2006 at 12:41 AM
I think ultra clean diesel is the way to go...
Posted by: rexis | 14 April 2006 at 02:04 AM
Any news if this extends to MINI?
and yeah, hydrogen has great power density, but poor energy density with respect to diesel or biodiesel.
Posted by: sam | 14 April 2006 at 05:11 AM
Engines have power density and fuels have energy density. BMW may be the only company that sees the futility of H2 fuel cells. Anybody know how much these cryogenic hydrogen tanks weigh?
Posted by: tom deplume | 14 April 2006 at 09:06 AM
I don't see how liquid hydrogen is going to be practical. The tanks have to vent a percentage of the fuel every day if you're parked. Sure, you can address the safety issue by burning it off with a catlyst, but does it make sense to buy fuel just to see it disappear?
Posted by: Nick | 14 April 2006 at 10:49 AM
Finally, a practical approach for the "hydrogen economy." If the fuel cell remain expensive for the forseeable future, then IC engine will be a viable alternative. Future IC engine won't be like our grandfather's Oldsmobile (4-barrel V-8...etc) with low combustion efficiency. Future IC engine with Atkinson-cycle engine, especially if hydrogen-boosted hydrocarbon fuel, or straight hydrogen, can approach the efficiency of the Diesel engine, or even fuel cells' efficiency, due to homogenous and complete combustion at ultra-lean stoichiometric ratio hence minizing NOx production without requiring EGR, AND high expansion ratio that the Atkinson cycle allows, WITHOUT the drawback of Diesel such as rough idle and hard to start due to excessively high compression, expensive and very-high pressure fuel injection mechanism, heavy construction due to high compression, and of course, very high NOx and high hydrocarbon emission.
However, the liquid Hydrogen idea needs more evaluation. LH2 is Okay for rockets or aeroplane, but may be impractical for cars, due to great difficulty in maintaining cryogenic temperature. Ovonic system using metal hydrides for storing large quantity of hydrogen at low pressures of ~300 psi may be the winner. At worse, storing hydrogen at 5000 psi in composite tank may not be so bad if the energy stored in high pressure can be recouped by an expansion motor coupled to the engine. A future hybrid with 90 mpg efficiency like the 2008 Prius does not need a very large hydrogen tank. Honda has demonstrated a hydrogen production, pressurization and filling system for home use.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 15 April 2006 at 08:51 AM
Roger, have you driven a modern BMW turbodiesel, you are insulting every engineer that built this car to say it is rough at idle. It is anything but, the higher compression noise is very very well subdued, and in car not noticable at all. Come on, don't nit pick.
And modern diesels are a world away from old-gen diesels, i fear most folk in the US haven't realised the massive jump in technology, but then again, there aren't any BMW diesels (or others) to have tested. They ARE NOT HARD TO START on a cold day, ceramic warming plugs have sorted that out and in my opinian are overkill anyway as you rarely have to wait the 5 seconds or so to start her up.
Can't wait until Bosch bring out 3000 bar piezo injectors, people said 1800 bar would be impossible. Gotta wonder where it'll stop! Till then, I'm quite happy to continue burning rubber at 2000rpm
Posted by: J Lobo | 23 April 2006 at 08:46 AM