After an intensive testing program, BMW has started, as announced earlier, producing a small series of fuel cell iX5 SAVs that will be used as a technology demonstrator for crucial clients in selected regions from spring 2023.

The BMW iX5 Hydrogen is being built in the BMW Group’s pilot plant at its Research and Innovation Centre in Munich. That’s where every new model from one of the company’s brands is made for the first time by some 900 employees, ensuring that both the product and the manufacturing process are ready for series production.

The basic vehicle comes from Spartanburg

The basic vehicle to be converted to hydrogen, which has been developed on the platform of the BMW X5, is delivered by BMW Group’s Plant Spartanburg in the USA

In Munich, it gets a new floor to accommodate the two hydrogen tanks in the center tunnel and under the rear seats. Specialists in hydrogen technology, vehicle development, and the initial assembly of new models are working closely together to integrate the latest technology.

The model-specific 12V and 400V electrical systems, high-performance battery, electric motor, and fuel cell are all integrated during the assembly stage. The electric motor on the rear axle is a product of the current fifth-generation BMW eDrive technology employed in battery electric and plug-in hybrid models from BMW.

The fuel cell system, says BMW, located under the hood of the BMW iX5 Hydrogen, has been manufactured at BMW’s in-house competence center for hydrogen in Garching to the north of Munich since August this year. When finished, every car undergoes a comprehensive operational check at the BMW Group’s test center in Aschheim.

BMW will start delivering some 100 of the iX5 hydrogen vehicles to selected partners in Europe, the US, and Asia from the end of this year to gain more experience on the client’s side.

The hippest thing to drive

Last October, BMW CEO Oliver Zipse presented plans to expand EV component production capacities. At the same time, he declared that, in the future, “hydrogen, not electric, will be the hippest thing to drive.”

As a comment on this, Zipse said that BMW would eventually offer five different drivetrains to help diversify alternative-fuel options within the group. It could even extend to the new ‘crown jewel’, the fully electric Rolls-Royce Sceptre.

BMW’s continued commitment to hydrogen has become an increasing outlier position in the automotive world. Electric vehicles have become the dominant alternative drive in the last five years. As a result, direct competitors like Mercedes-Benz and Audi almost scrapped their plans to develop fuel-cell vehicles and invested heavily in pure-electric cars instead.

Further investing in development

Meanwhile, BMW is further investing in the development of hydrogen technology. A consortium of German heavyweights led by BMW is developing a flat tank for storing hydrogen at 700 bar that can be mounted in a car’s underbody like batteries for a BEV as an alternative to today’s bulky H2 tanks.

BMW is also partnering with German ‘historic’ combustion engine manufacturer Deutz AG in a ‘real-life operation’ project to test the feasibility of using heavy trucks with a six-cylinder combustion engine burning hydrogen instead of diesel in its logistics chain.