The CleanEnergy WorldTour 2001 comes to California And TACH will Have Exclusive Video Coverage
The CleanEnergy WorldTour 2001 comes to California
On its fifth stop of the CleanEnergy WorldTour 2001 the BMW Group is
presenting its hydrogen-powered cars with internal combustion engines in the
mother country of emissions legislation.
MUNICH, Germany and LOS ANGELES, July 12 The BMW
CleanEnergy WorldTour 2001 reaches its international conclusion in Los Angeles
with the official opening of a fuel station for liquid hydrogen before the
event draws to an end in Berlin. The fuel station in the BMW Engineering and
Emissions Control Test Center in the California town of Oxnard, located
outside of Los Angeles, is to lay the foundation for the introduction of
hydrogen as the vehicle fuel of the future in California and the USA. Dr.
Burkhard Goschel, Member of the Board for Development and Purchasing of the
BMW Group, states: "We automobile manufactures can explain our strategy most
effectively right here in California since the population's and politicians'
awareness for ecology and energy is more developed here than anywhere else."
For this reason the Head of Development of the BMW Group will also meet with
Dr. Allan Lloyd, Chairman of CARB (California Air Resources Board). CARB is
responsible for the world's most stringent air pollution control legislation
in California and therefore is in support of the new source of energy,
hydrogen.
Hydrogen-powered vehicles can solve the air pollution problem once and for
all
Los Angeles has been specifically selected as the fifth and last stop of
the international CleanEnergy WorldTour 2001: it is the largest metropolis in
the state of California which is so committed to battling air pollution. It is
here that the highly advanced BMW hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine
cars can make an effective contribution towards improving air quality.
To this purpose, several of the 12-cylinder hydrogen-powered BMW 750hL
models will remain permanently stationed in the BMW emissions test center in
Oxnard for extensive testing and demonstrations. "However, we want to achieve
even more on this CleanEnergy WorldTour. We want to campaign for hydrogen and
gain new strategic partnerships for the broad-scale introduction of hydrogen
-- specifically outside of the automobile industry", says Dr. Goschel. Further
talks with high-ranking representatives from the world of finance and the oil
industry are planned.
CleanEnergy WorldTour 2001 travels to four continents
The aim of the CleanEnergy WorldTour 2001 is to direct the international
public's eye to the highly advanced hydrogen technology, its benefits and the
tasks which still need to be faced. For only hydrogen fulfils the requirements
of the fuel of the future: produced with the aid of regenerative sources of
energy such as sun's it is the cleanest fuel there is. The product of
combustion is water. To this purpose the BMW Group sent a large part of its
hydrogen-powered fleet of BMW 750 hL models on a tour of five cities on four
continents. Representatives of the BMW Group discussed specific hydrogen-
related topics with experts from all over the world.
The tour was launched in Dubai where the topic was the regenerative
production of hydrogen. The event was under the patronage of the ruling Sheik
Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum who expressed great interest in the concepts of
the BMW Group. For example, solar thermal energy are to play a major role in a
46-billion US dollar environment program in the Unites Arabian Emirates.
BMW Group initiative met with international political support
For its second stop, the 750 hL fleet headed for the EU capital of
Brussels. Here Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim Milberg, Chairman of the Board of BMW
AG, strongly appealed to European politicians: "If politicians declare their
target to be environment-friendly mobility, then we need their help until
hydrogen has established itself on the market." The BMW Group's commitment in
Brussels was supported by Klaus Topfer, Director of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and Loyola de Palacio, EU Commissar for Transport
and Energy.
The third stop was in Milan, which plays a pioneering role in the
introduction and utilization of the environment-friendly source of energy.
Here it is planned to build a hydrogen fuel station on the grounds of a
1.3 megawatt fuel cell powerplant.
In Tokyo, the fourth stop of the CleanEnergy WorldTour, the BMW 750 hL was
the first small-series manufactured hydrogen car to touch Japanese soil. This
maiden voyage expressed the joint objectives of Japan and the BMW Group in the
development and utilisation of hydrogen. With its visit in Tokyo the
automobile manufacturer expressed its willingness to invest in long-term
mobility and to act in the spirit of the Kyoto protocol.
Range, dynamic performance and comfort all speak for the spark ignition
engine
The BMW Group has worked very hard for more than 20 years in R&D to obtain
its international lead in hydrogen technology. The company supplied the
know-how and the decisive impulses not only in engine technology, but also in
the extraction, fuelling and storing of hydrogen. With the BMW 750 hL, the BMW
Group is the world's first automobile manufacturer to have built a small
series of hydrogen-powered saloons.
These 750 hLs have already covered more than 140,000 kilometers on the
roads and motorways of the world -- with no major problems. They are the
confirmation for how highly developed BMW hydrogen technology already is
today. "We place our bets on the internal combustion engine, because we are
convinced that our customers will attach great importance to range, dynamic
performance and comfort in the future too," says Dr. Burkhard Goschel.
"However, we want to cooperate with the other automobile manufacturers on the
topic of alternative drive. We have a common aim which is the Zero Emission
Vehicle. And both thinkable solutions, the electric car powered by electricity
from a fuel cell as well as our vehicle with spark ignition engine, have the
main thing in common: hydrogen as the source of energy."
CleanEnergy on the Internet
You are only a few mouseclicks away from further information on the
CleanEnergy strategy of the BMW Group and the CleanEnergy WorldTour: at
http://www.bmwgroup.com/innovation and http://www.bmwgroup.com/scienceclub you can find out
about current developments and background information on the topic of hydrogen
at the BMW Group.
