It looks like BMW didn’t drop all of its plans for a hydrogen-powered vehicle and that we will actually see such a car in production clothes in the near future. At least that’s what Forbes is claiming in a recent article, quoting high-ranking officials from Munich, following the #NextGen event that took place last week. According to the publication, BMW plans on launching a test BMW X5 early in the next decade followed by another, more refined version in 2025.
BMW has been working on fuel-cell technology with Toyota for quite some time. The two automotive giants signed an agreement a long time ago and a lot of people forgot about it because tangible results haven’t made it out on the market so far. However, the Bavarian company did showcase a couple of prototypes working on hydrogen back in 2015, in France, during an event we were a part of as well.
No new information about the progress done on these cars has been shared with the media since then though, at least until last week. According to Forbes, BMW’s Director of Development, Klaus Frohlich said “In the early ‘20s there will be a small series of X5 hydrogen cars and by 2025 there will be a mass producible hydrogen car available, with Toyota.”
Forbes also claims that the first batch of fuel-cell BMW X5 models will be very expensive and a low-volume product, with limited availability worldwide.
Furthermore, while the technology already exists, it looks like BMW is waiting for it to reach maturity and for the pricing to go down, before committing.
“It doesn’t make sense to scale the fuel cell (X5) when the stack is 80,000 euros,” Frölich said. “It makes sense to scale when it’s 10,000 euros.” Reports about this low-volume fuel-cell model have been going around for quite some time now and this is just the latest episode, so it looks like it’s definitely happening.
