BMW: EV’s are Dead, buy Hydrogen Fuel Cells Vehicles

[SASSquatch]

I’ll be dead by the time the hydrogen refilling infrastructure is built out so I will just enjoy my 835hp electric truck until then

This exactly. Hydrogen for mass transit is a fools errand. The infrastructure isn't there and it won't be there because of cost. Trillions of dollars in cost.

The US government heavily subsidized infrastructure for fossil fuels over decades. We don't have decades or trillions of dollars.

Solid State batteries are the immediate future.

The OP source failed to mention that BMW has heavily invested in Solid Power - company leading solid state battery development - and that Solid Power has a contract to build scalable commercial Solid State batteries for BMW.

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[mkhuffman]

This describes exactly what I have been thinking as well. I am going to steal this with attribution! Great post!

 

[mkhuffman]

Apparently BMW is shifting to Team Hydrogen. See links below.

This aligns with hints I heard from an industry insider late in 2023.

He said he works in Electric Vehicle drivetrains. He said he was in the edge of buying a great condition Tesla for a great price when we began to hear things specifically from Tesla.

He said Tesla is so big that they have the bulk of the world’s best minds working on their drivetrains.

He said it’s really early in the technology and there are some major advances coming in the next 5 years that are mind blowing. It convinced him not to buy the Tesla or any current EV.

I said, “like solid state batteries?” And he didn’t respond or say much more. I didn’t get the feeling that was it.

Hydrogen could be it though. Batteries are so heavy and Tesla’s had trouble bringing advances in batteries to mass production. Charging times still suck and that’s not changing any time soon.

I think hydrogen makes a ton of sense. It solves many of the problems, including charging time and weight. The biggest problem is hydrogen’s explosiveness, but solid state hydrogen would be a game changer (I think I said that right. It’s a “dry” way to store the hydrogen that isn’t easily explosive.)

It’s interesting to me that BMW is ready to go big on hydrogen.

https://hydrogen-central.com/bmw-sa...w-solved-the-problem-of-hydrogen-engines-mes/
https://www.dhakatribune.com/amp/business/338624/bmw-bids-farewell-to-electric-cars-set-to-launch

Just want to point out that any "ground breaking" advance in vehicle propulsion is going to be in mass production years after this breakthrough is announced to the public. Maybe decades. Not purchasing a Tesla or any vehicle is stupid if the reason is because of some huge advance in technology that hasn't even been publicized yet. Just stupid. IMO.

 

[CharonPDX]

Article has no sourcing, and is on a pro-Hydrogen website. Yeah, I'm taking this with a grain of salt.

Yes, BMW has researched Hydrogen, but they've also gone all-in on EVs. Go look at their web page, you will see lots about electrification, nothing about Hydrogen.

 

[fastwheels]

Perhaps BMW made that decision a bit too soon...

Shell Is Immediately Closing All Of Its California Hydrogen Stations (insideevs.com)

 

[Tucker74]

Perhaps BMW made that decision a bit too soon...

Shell Is Immediately Closing All Of Its California Hydrogen Stations (insideevs.com)

Yup - Shell pulling out 1/3 of the stations in the only state with meaningful hydrogen infrastructure. Because they can’t get hydrogen … this article is click-bait.

 

[SteveInBend]

I'm sorry but BMW CEO Oliver Zipse saying "hydrogen engines are poised to play a significant role globally in the long term." does not equal "EV's are dead" for BMW.

 

[VSG]

Solid State batteries are the immediate future.

That's what we've been hearing for about 20 years now ...

 

[SASSquatch]

That's what we've been hearing for about 20 years now ...

Tesla didn't even release the Tesla Roadster until 2008.

How about you reference an actual source that claims in 2004 that solid state batteries were the immediate future when Tesla was just getting started with liquid electrolyte lithium-ion.

 

[Autolycus]

Toyota, humorously enough, was one of the first to start research into solid state batteries for EVs. Their research started in 2012. It’s been over a decade that they’ve been “a few years away”, but not 2 decades.

 

[mkhuffman]

Toyota, humorously enough, was one of the first to start research into solid state batteries for EVs. Their research started in 2012. It’s been over a decade that they’ve been “a few years away”, but not 2 decades.

Yes. So when Toyota did their first press release on how great their new SS battery was going to be, the guy the OP described stopped buying new cars. He is still driving his 2003 Prius, because Toyota said this great new tech is coming. ?

 

[av8or]

I have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to pay for fuel. Sunshine is free, but I live in a make believe world according to some.

 

[VSG]

Tesla didn't even release the Tesla Roadster until 2008.

Who said anything about Tesla? Not me. I don't see that anyone in this thread has talked about Tesla , so I don't know what your point is here.

(Almost 90 posts in this thread with no mention of Tesla - that must be some sort of record!)

Are you seriously unaware of the fact that Toyota for one has been promising solid state batteries for a long time? (https://pressroom.toyota.com/tmc-outlines-eco-car-plans-battery-research-progress/) They make a press release, miss the date, then kick the can down the road. This time they're talking about "as soon as 2027", but even if they can do it by then will Toyota have an EV to put them in?

Here's an article from 2017 for example, where Toyota had plans to ship vehicles with solid state batteries in 2022:
https://www.autoblog.com/2017/07/25/toyota-long-range-fast-charging-solid-state-electric-car-ev/

And then there's Fisker, which 7 years ago announced a huge revolutionary breakthrough in solid state batteries, which were supposed to have been showing up in their production automobiles last year ... https://electrek.co/2017/11/14/fisker-solid-state-battery-breakthrough-electric-cars/

Solid state batteries are not the "immediate future". They are a promising technology, but they are also not just one technology, and other types of batteries are also showing great strides. But historically battery technology has seen incremental improvements, not order-of-magnitude improvements. There is still a huge amount of work to be done to bring solid state batteries suitable for automotive use into a mass market. And by that time, who knows how these other technologies will have fared.

And although these examples only go back 10 years or so, sold state batteries have been around much longer - I first encountered solid state batteries almost 30 years ago, and there was a lot of excitement about them even then. They did not progress very fast at all, and actually had quite limited potential for a very long time.

Solid state and other battery technologies have come a long way since then, but solid state is not ready for a mass produced consumer vehicle yet. And by that time maybe one of these 100 other battery types we know about will be just as capable.

So I'm not putting off buying decisions while I wait for solid state to come out. As they say, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, won't get fooled again" - W.

 

[MidnightRivian]

Just today I was talking to my wife while running around town in the Rivian.

Both of us were looking back at awe with the fact we can harness energy from the sun, turn it into electricity to charge our vehicle for transportation which has the ability to drive it self using Driver Assist or FSD.

What a great time to be alive!!

You don't see anyone raving about being able to fill up hydrogen at a select few stations on the coast.

I do see folks all excited about the transition to solar as cost comes down and efficiency goes up.

Now with a Powerwalls on wheels, the stress of storage has gone down as well.

 

[av8or]

It’s definitely the future! ?‍
https://insideevs.com/news/708156/shell-closes-california-hydrogen-stations/

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