[SPClark]

Looking to the future, can anyone offer up where further info about BMW / Mini's efforts at an H2-powered version? I'd heard brief rumors about the time of the U.S. premier but nothing after.
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Motoring around Chicagoland since April 12, 2002 in my Black-over-Liquid Yellow Cooper

[OBsminiS]

Haven't heard much about it. Cool concept and probably the way of the future. Only real problem with alternate fuel sources is lack of infrastructure. We run a propane powered van. Can't exactly fill it up everywhere.

[Paul]

From last September: Hydrogen MINI Cooper...

http://www.mini2.com/news/news.php?id=80

[MiNi]

i think that it should be hear before 2010.

[SPClark]

Quote:

Originally posted by MiNi
i think that it should be hear before 2010.

Felt this was a "Goode Idea" many years ago, just before Gas Shortage 001 - of course my contemporaries laughed at me... (I thought it was because of the little white car I drove, with the black top & 10" wheels....)

Still, I understand one of The US Majors is - behind the scenes - doing a great deal of advanced research (read lots of $$$) into high end, very efficient fuelcell tech which just may justify the investment in infrastructure to make it all a real-world solution before 2010.

Still I don't see a lot of H being piped around as a gas; the stuff is just too small to stay in most pipelines, & those we have are getting pretty old so count out just switching 'em over.

Time will tell; mayhap I can trade my '03 S in by then on an '08 HS!

[eltel]

This is from the Frankfurt 2001 Motor Show BMW Press Kit about the Mini Hydrogen CleanEnergy Car.

2.1 MINI:
CleanEnergy.
MINI is a brand with a great future in many respects: Through the MINI Cooper hydrogen package study based on the MINI Cooper and designed consistently for hydrogen drive, the BMW Group is proving for the first time at the Frankfurt Motor Show that the combustion engine without CO2 emissions can offer an excellent combination of low costs, good packaging, and driving pleasure. And indeed, this combination is absolutely indispensable if hydrogen is to be widely accepted as the fuel of the future.
MINI: Innovative four-cylinder power unit
with cryogenic fuel/air mixture formation.
The technical feature highlighted by this new concept car clearly demonstrates the progress BMW has made in the meantime in developing thoroughbred hydrogen drive. The single-mode four-cylinder power unit based on a standard MINI engine, for example, might well one day feature cryogenic fuel/air mixture formation.
This is the injection of liquid, ultra-cold hydrogen into the intake ducts. Other hydrogen engines such as BMW’s new dual-mode 8-cylinder also able to run on petrol and presented to the public for the first time at the Frankfurt Motor Show in the 745h start out by first heating hydrogen to the ambient temperature prior to the actual injection process. Cryogenic fuel/air mixture formation, in turn,
cools down the mixture drawn into the engine, increases the cylinder charge and, as a result, boosts both engine output and the standard of efficiency. In its power and consumption, the hydrogen engine
in this cutting-edge MINI thus has the potential to match the high standard of a modern petrol engine in every respect.

MINI: Featuring a specially contoured tank for the first time
instead of the usual hydrogen cylinder.
The tank and fuel supply system offer the same high standard of technology: This MINI prototype is the first car of its kind with a specially contoured hydrogen tank beneath the rear seats, allowing optimum use of the space available. So far only cylindrical tanks have been used for liquid hydrogen in the car, since only tanks of this kind were able to meet the high standard of insulation and
safety required. Now, with the new tank, the supply of hydrogen in the modified MINI Cooper does not take up any more space for
the same capacity as a conventional petrol fuel tank. In particular,
it does not infringe upon the space available in the passenger
and luggage compartments.

MINI: “CleanEnergy is classless”.
Presenting the MINI Cooper Hydrogen, the BMW Group clearly confirms its commitment to the future of hydrogen in the combustion engine. Now the practical implementation of BMW’s CleanEnergy strategy also in this compact car and other smaller models will depend primarily on the general success of hydrogen cars in the market. The BMW Group is taking on the leading role also in this segment of single-mode hydrogen-powered cars with a combustion engine, thus making CleanEnergy a classless technology for the future.

Regards, ElTel2.1 MINI:

[eltel]

Try this link as well.

http://www.bmwworld.com/models/750hl.htm

Regards, ElTel