Stars back green machine

Angelina Jolie has done it. With Brad Pitt, as it happens. But then, so has Christian Ude, who is staid, 60 and the mayor of Munich.

They have all driven the latest bid by the world’s car-makers to develop a ‘hydrogen car’ – in this case, a ‘clean energy‘ version of BMW’s top-of-the-range 7 Series.

A hundred of the cars, which can alternate between hydrogen and petrol power, have rolled off the company’s assembly line in Germany since the end of last year.

Last week, two dozen were handed to VIPs in California.

Under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, green is the new black for motorists there. And the new ‘Beamer’, the Hydrogen 7, was suddenly the epitome of cool. Not just cool, but cold.

What makes it run is a double- insulated cylinder – behind the rear passenger seat – which is full of liquid hydrogen kept at minus 253C.

Crucially for campaigners who want to make greener cars a practical mainstream alternative, the BMW is designed around a conventional internal combustion engine.

Other companies’ hydrogen vehicles use the element in fuel cells to power a battery-operated engine.

Not only does the BMW look and drive like a conventional Series 7, but it can also be switched seamlessly back into ‘petrol mode’ if necessary.

That is particularly important, according to local hydrogen-car supporters, because it could make the car practical for everyday driving without the large-scale network of filling stations required to bring hydrogen into the motoring mainstream.

California is a world leader in hydrogen car use and it is where the immediate push for change is likeliest to come, but Schwarzenegger’s promised ‘highway’ of hundreds of filling stations 32km apart is still years away. There are currently about two dozen in the state.

That is just one of the hurdles car companies face before getting large numbers of cars such as the Hydrogen 7 onto dealer forecourts.

“It’s all about infrastructure,” explained Andreas Klugescheid, of BMW’s clean energy unit in California. “All the major companies are working on hydrogen cars, but the key to moving this forward is to get a reliable, wide hydrogen infrastructure in place.”

Hydrogen can be produced from any energy source. But to many environmental campaigners’ dismay, by far the most popular source is currently carbon-based energy, particularly natural gas.

“The hydrogen car is still cleaner,” Mr Klugescheid said, “because what comes out of the exhaust pipe is not CO2 but H2O – water.”

Still, last week’s launch was the latest signal that the move to create greener cars is gathering pace.

Toyota’s ‘hybrid’ Prius, which uses an on-board computer to switch between petrol and battery power, is the industry leader.

In January, Ford rolled out a £1 million prototype of a HySeries Edge – a version of its popular SUV developed with the help of millions of dollars in US government support.

Mr Klugescheid said BMW wanted to show such cars need not seem futuristic and had aimed to give the Hydrogen 7 an appeal similar to other Series 7 models.

“The key is to convince more and more people that hydrogen cars can be built for clean performance, style and comfort, not just in the future,” he added.