Toyota and BMW to upgrade hydrogen fuel cell partnership: report

A recent report has suggested that Toyota and BMW would be upgrading their partnership in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. A memorandum of understanding for the upgraded partnership is expected to be signed next week and announced at BMW’s upcoming media roundtable on September 5. 

As noted by Nikkei Asia, the two carmakers already have an existing partnership for fuel cell vehicles, though it was mostly limited to Toyota supplying BMW with a few components. Under the terms of the upgraded partnership, Toyota would be supplying BMW with more critical parts, such as hydrogen tanks and fuel cell systems, for the German automaker’s hydrogen cars. 

While BMW is seeing some momentum with its electric vehicles in Europe, the automaker is still busy working on fuel cell cars. These include the BMW iX5 Hydrogen, which is expected to be equipped with two hydrogen tanks that should give the vehicle a range of 500 miles. BMW has also noted that the iX5 Hydrogen could fully refuel in just 3-4 minutes. The incorporation of Toyota’s fuel cell system could pave the way for the German automaker to adopt a more aggressive timeline for the BMW iX5 Hydrogen’s release. 

Refuelled in minutes.

The BMW iX5 Hydrogen takes just 3-4 minutes to fully refuel. This is just one reason why hydrogen fuel cell tech has the potential to provide an additional option for e-drive systems in the future #BMWGroup #THEiX5Hydrogen #hydrogen pic.twitter.com/Wv2ebcnE6z

— BMW Group (@BMWGroup) June 14, 2024

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which run on electricity generated through the chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen, have long been promoted by electric car critics as a superior alternative to EVs, thanks in part to their short fill-up time and the fact that they only emit water during power generation. Fuel cell vehicles have so far failed to catch mainstream success, however, mainly due to the fact that hydrogen filling stations are still incredibly rare. 

This was highlighted by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, which noted that there were only 270 hydrogen filling stations across Europe at the end of 2023. In comparison, there were about 632,000 public EV charging stations across the European Union (EU) as of last year. Of course, some electric car owners do not even charge their cars from public stations, as EVs can easily charge their cars from home. 

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