"The name tells you immediately what it is: The 2007 BMW Hydrogen 7 is a 7 Series sedan the automaker converted to run on liquid hydrogen. There is no intention to put this or any other hydrogen-fueled car into production yet. The point of the exercise is to gather experience with a hydrogen car in the real world. So let's go straight to the experience.
If no one told you there was a fortune in advanced technology and ground-breaking engineering packed into this car, you might think you were motoring about in a perfectly normal 760Li. Indeed, while looking hard for distinguishing characteristics during our test-drive around greater Berlin, we came up with just three suspects: a slight metallic rattle from the engine when accelerating (sort of like a diesel but less pronounced), an occasional hesitation or engine-transmission miscue on tip-in and less energetic acceleration, thanks to a power cut from 438 horsepower to 260 and a weight gain of 440 pounds.
That's it. Otherwise, the Hydrogen 7 is a perfectly normal luxury sedan. It is definitely not some weird science project that forces us to scale back our expectations about the personal automobile. "A vehicle that is not a BMW anymore is not acceptable to us," says the company in contemplating the future of mobility. And noting that the internal-combustion engine represents available and well-understood technology, BMW is placing a bet on adaptation of existing engines (the 6.0-liter V12 in this case) to burn liquid hydrogen as one way to move beyond fossil fuels."
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