BMW stands as one of the very few legacy automakers still deeply committed to hydrogen fuel-cell technology, but fans hoping to see that commitment reach an M-badged performance car will need to temper their expectations. For Drive Australia, Frank van Meel, head of BMW M, has made clear that while the division hasn’t ruled hydrogen out entirely, the engineering reality makes it a distant proposition at best.
Packaging Is An Issue
The core problem comes down to physics and packaging. A hydrogen fuel-cell system capable of delivering genuine performance output requires multiple stacks working in concert, each demanding its own thermal management infrastructure. Stack them up for M-car power figures and you quickly run out of space — and gain a great deal of weight. Van Meel described the end result bluntly: you end up with something the size of a truck. That’s not a problem BMW M is anywhere close to solving.
The same challenge extends to motorsport. BMW M has been exploring whether hydrogen could play a role in endurance racing, but van Meel acknowledges the brand has yet to find a workable path. Burning hydrogen directly in a combustion engine — the route Toyota has been exploring in racing — would make the engineering easier, but BMW’s philosophy rules that approach out. For BMW, hydrogen means fuel cells and zero tailpipe emissions, with water vapor as the only byproduct. That’s a harder technical bar to clear, especially on a race circuit where refueling time, weight distribution, and packaging are all critical variables.
A Road Car Program That’s Very Much Alive
None of this reflects a lack of effort or belief in the technology at the road car level. BMW confirmed in September 2025 that its hydrogen iX5 — allegedly badged the iX5 60H xDrive — will enter series production in 2028, making BMW the first global premium manufacturer to bring a fuel-cell passenger car to market at scale. The nameplate follows years of real-world development: a global pilot fleet has been running since 2023, covering more than a million test kilometers across more than 20 countries in conditions ranging from extreme heat to sub-zero cold.
The production iX5 Hydrogen will use a third-generation fuel-cell system co-developed with Toyota, the result of a partnership between the two automakers stretching back to 2011. That system will be meaningfully more compact, more powerful, and more efficient than the second-generation stack used in the pilot fleet — improvements that make it viable for a production SUV, even if they don’t yet crack the packaging puzzle for a sports car.
Fuel-Cell Stacks Made in Germany
Production of the fuel-cell stacks will take place at BMW’s Steyr plant in Austria, with key components including a new hydrogen-specific high-voltage controller manufactured at the Landshut facility in Germany. The iX5 Hydrogen will slot into the next-generation X5 lineup as one of five available powertrain options — a remarkable range that also spans petrol, diesel, plug-in hybrid, and battery-electric variants.
BMW’s decision to stay the course on hydrogen while most rivals have stepped back reflects a genuine strategic conviction that the technology will find its place, particularly in markets where charging infrastructure lags or in use cases where long range and fast refueling matter most.
For BMW M, the honest answer is that hydrogen remains an open question rather than a roadmap item. The division’s near-term focus sits firmly with combustion performance, plug-in hybrid systems, and the battery-electric models taking shape under the new platform architecture. Whether fuel-cell technology ever finds its way into an M product will depend on breakthroughs in miniaturization and thermal management that simply don’t exist yet. Van Meel hasn’t closed the door — but he hasn’t opened it either.
