A quarter century ago, BMW established a special research and development center under the BMW Forschung und Technik GmbH. As BMW Technik celebrates its silver anniversary, it has revealed the existence of hydrogen hybrid 1 series concept.
BMW has been working on hydrogen-fueled vehicles since at least the mid-1990s, but most of that work has revolved around hydrogen internal combustion rather than fuel cell electric vehicles.
This new concept is a through-the-road hybrid that uses a both a small gasoline engine and a small five-kilowatt fuel cell. The fuel cell works in combination with a bank of super-capacitors for electrical energy storage. An inline-four gasoline engine is transversely mounted and drives the front wheels. The fuel cell, which is developed from one that BMW has been testing mainly as an auxiliary power unit to generate the electricity needed for the car, is mounted behind the engine. This fuel cell is used to charge the super-caps, which also store energy from regenerative braking. The super-caps drive an 82 kilowatt electric motor at the rear axle.
The electric drive can be used on its own for low-speed urban driving or combined with the engine for on-demand all-wheel drive and acceleration. At highway speeds, the engine provides primary drive. We don't know if this concept drivetrain will go anywhere or if BMW will persist with the super-caps or switch to lithium ion batteries. BMW hasn't revealed any details about electric driving range or performance.
source: autoblog
