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Why BMW Is Still Betting Big On Hydrogen Cars - BONUS EP!

·34 min·2 clips

BMW says hydrogen is a "second leg to stand on" because customers can't always be forced into battery EVs.

1. InsideEVs Plugged-In Podcast's bonus BMW Climate Week episode focuses on BMW hydrogen cars and the confirmed iX5 Hydrogen for 2028. 2. Hosts Patrick George and Tim Levin interview Dr. Michael Roth, BMW's Vice President of Hydrogen-Powered Vehicles, whose battery EV and hydrogen strategy background makes him central to the topic. 3. The episode asks why BMW is still betting on hydrogen when battery EVs already dominate the zero-emission conversation. 4. Roth says he worked on BMW battery electric strategy about 10 years ago and was involved with the i3 successor before moving to hydrogen three years ago. 5. He traces BMW's hydrogen history back to the 1970s, including the 1972 Munich Olympics 1602 and the first BMW hydrogen prototype in 1979. 6. Roth describes an early 2000s 7-series pilot fleet with a 12-cylinder, 6-liter hydrogen combustion engine running on liquefied hydrogen. 7. He says BMW concluded that burning hydrogen was not the most efficient use of the energy carrier and that liquefied hydrogen created packaging and standards problems. 8. Roth explains that a fuel cell electric vehicle stores energy in hydrogen gas, combines H2 with oxygen from the air, and produces water vapor while generating electricity. 9. He says BMW learned from the i3 era that technology openness and mass-production planning matter when moving from pilot fleets to series production. 10. Roth says the current fuel cell pilot fleet has run for almost three years, driven in over 20 countries, and covered more than 1 million kilometers. 11. He says BMW reduced the volume of the entire fuel cell system by 25% from the second-generation iX5 hydrogen pilot fleet to the third-generation system for 2028. 12. Roth says the company also improved efficiency and power, which he connects directly to BMW's focus on "joy of driving." 13. He argues that hydrogen is useful because BMW cannot force customers into one special technology and needs a second zero-emission option alongside battery EVs. 14. Roth says fuel cell vehicles drive like battery EVs, accelerate instantly, and refuel like gasoline cars, which he presents as a customer-facing advantage. 15. He says hydrogen matters beyond passenger cars because renewable energy from wind and solar is often disconnected from demand in time and location. 16. Roth says hydrogen can serve as an energy carrier and storage medium for moving energy from summer to winter and from coastal areas to industrial centers. 17. He says the iX5 Hydrogen was chosen first because larger vehicles face higher resistance and consumption, but he does not rule out smaller models later. 18. The interview has a technical, conversational tone, with the hosts pressing Roth on infrastructure, market selection, hydrogen production, and refueling logistics. 19. Listeners interested in BMW strategy, hydrogen fuel cells, and zero-emission vehicle planning would get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners looking for a battery-EV-only discussion or light entertainment would probably skip it.

As heard by us

BMW's hydrogen case links fuel-cell engineering to the larger problem of renewable energy storage.

BMW's hydrogen case gets a clear, useful hearing in this bonus interview, moving from the engineering demands of a fuel-cell car to the wider question of where hydrogen fits in a decarbonized energy system. Dr.

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You want to know why BMW sees hydrogen as a second zero-emission path alongside battery-electric cars.

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