Hydrogen-fuelled cars get going

BMW’s H2 (hydrogen- powered) iX5 should be available in international markets in 2028 and it’s expected to have the furthest range of any fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV). Global clean hydrogen industry website, Hydrogen Insight (hydrogeninsight.com), believes the vehicle will outperform the Toyota Mirai and Hyundai Nexo’s hydrogen capacity. The Mirai is currently available in Japan, US, Germany, UK, Denmark and Belgium and the Nexo in Canada, Australia, Japan and some European countries. The distribution of these fuel-cell vehicles is limited to areas where there are fuel supplies. The new BMW’s fuel-cell system stores around 7kg of hydrogen and will allow the new BMW to drive a range of up to 750km between refills. A hydrogen fuel cell system works by combining hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity onboard with only water and heat being produced as byproducts. Hydrogen outlook Despite falling sales of H2 passenger cars, BMW announced last September it was on course to start production of the vehicle and was formally granted €273m (R5,46bn) in German state funds to develop the powertrain for the new BMW. However, research from earlier this year shows that FCEV sales increased during the second half of 2025, mainly due to the new Nexo model launched in South Korea and a growing fleet of fuel-cell trucks in China that benefit from subsidised hydrogen fuel.