For several years, BMW has been building custom prototypes of luxury cars that can switch between hydrogen and gasoline in an internal-combustion engine. Now, the automaker is touting a version that has gone through rigorous product-development steps, so that it could theoretically be mass-manufactured–although BMW will make only 100 of them and give them away to a privileged group of as-yet-unnamed celebrities and politicians.
Many observers feel hydrogen as a transportation energy source is a far-out proposition. With this move, BMW has at least made a strong case that it will be more practical to burn hydrogen in a traditional internal combustion engine than to pass it through fuel cells to produce electricity to drive electric motors.