The longstanding “green car” partnership between BMW and Toyota is getting a little closer to bearing fruit. As Autoblog explains, BMW sales leader Pieter Nota said in an interview with Nikkei that the brands aim to put the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles developed jointly by 2025. The note didn’t give potential buyers a clue as to what to expect, but fuel cells are “especially important for large SUVs like the iX5 Hydrogen concept. Small-volume production of the iX5 is expected to begin later this year,” he said.
BMW and Toyota have collaborated on numerous cars over the years, including the recent revival of the Supra sports car. The two formalized their green vehicle technology partnership in early 2013, but they didn’t expect to complete work on an inclusive fuel cell system until 2020.
It may seem strange to continue working on hydrogen-powered vehicles at a time when electric vehicles are much more popular. However, Nota reminds us of some of the advantages of technology that we have heard before. For example, where electric vehicles take several times longer to recharge, fuel cell cars can be recharged in just a few minutes. Nota also said that BMW does not want to spend all of its investments on a single technology and does not have as much supply shortages as the electric versions of its hydrogen models.
But regardless of this hydrogen technology, it looks like BMW may soon accelerate EV development. Electric-only cars were a larger-than-expected sales segment, and Nota said the company could hit its 50 percent EV sales target “a year or two” from its current 2030 target.
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