The Duke of York finds out about hydrogen technology

Munich 04/09/2005; A V.I.P. has visited the BMW Group in Munich: His Royal Highness Prince Andrew, Duke of York, found out the facts about hydrogen technology as part of his visit to Germany. Immediately after his arrival from Hamburg, the first stop in his schedule was the hydrogen filling station at Munich Airport, before the Duke visited MAN Commercial Vehicles, the BMW Group Research and Innovation Centre and Siemens AG. These three companies are amongst the largest investors in the United Kingdom.

His Royal Highness was visiting Munich in his capacity as the United Kingdom's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment. His visit centred on the maintenance of the excellent economic relationship between Bavaria and the UK. The Duke is particularly interested in the in-depth Bavarian-British cooperation in the area of research and development.

The hydrogen filling station in Munich was the first filling station of its type to be opened in the world, over five years ago. It is used not only by MAN buses and forklift trucks but also by BMW vehicles powered by hydrogen, the cleanest of all the energies available. Professor Raymond Freymann, Director of BMW Forschung und Technik GmbH, explained the BMW Clean Energy Technology Concept to the Duke and demonstrated the filling process using liquid hydrogen and filling robots. Combustion engines that drive on hydrogen provide the driving experience, dynamism and comfort that is expected of BMW, combined with absolute environmental compatibility. BMW presented the first fleet of hydrogen vehicles in May 2000 in Berlin. Since then, the BMW 750hL vehicles have driven over 170,000 km worldwide with total reliability as part of the CleanEnergy World Tour.

The hydrogen vehicle is currently in series development at the Munich plant. The BMW Group will be able to hand a hydrogen model over to customers in just three years. "We have often published the fact that we will be series-producing a hydrogen vehicle during the lifecycle of the current BMW 7 Series. We stand by that", said Professor Burkhard Göschel, Member of the Board of BMW AG, Development and Purchasing, in welcoming the Duke of York to the BMW Group Research and Innovation Centre. At the airport filling station, Professor Freymann showed the Duke a demonstration vehicle using this seminal technology: a BMW 7 Series with a tank capacity of over 140 litres of hydrogen. This means that it has a range of 300 kilometres, or around 600 km with petrol. The record-breaking BMW H2R had already attracted attention back in 2004, when the BMW Group set nine international speed records. The maximum speed reached was 300.175 km/h.

The BMW Group's involvement continues further. As part of the educational offensive for BMW CleanEnergy, the Secondary Level training materials (German, English, Mandarin), the training materials for children (German) and the BMW CleanEnergy Exhibition in the Transport Centre of the Deutsche Museum in Munich and the STM Chinese Science and Technology Museum in Beijing have reached new sectors of the public.