It has been a while since i last posted something. I`m sorry for the absence but i was visiting Portugal for one week and it involved quite a bit of time consumption...



BMW's Idea: Pioneering a carbon-free future

BMW has a history of not just being a pioneer in car technologies but also thinking ahead into the future. That is why in terms of a long term vision BMW has invested in a 20-year R&D project to develop sustainable transportation for a post-carbon world. Their proposed solution: Hydrogen. It's a plentiful resource. And the exhaust produced by a hydrogen engine is 99% water. It's not an uncomplicated solution. But provided we can figure out how to extract it from water cheaply, manufacture it efficiently, and build out the infrastructure of hydrogen fueling stations that will make deployment practical, it could be viable.

As a first step toward making this a reality, BMW developed the Hydrogen 7, which runs on gasoline and liquid hydrogen. It's not an end solution, but a manufacturable proof-of-concept. One they wanted the world's influencers to see up close and try for themselves.

But BMW does not stop here. In keeping with their pioneering spirit BMW launched Club of Pioneers (be sure to check it out, it`s worth an insightfull peek), an open dialogue platform all about future mobility - encouraging people to discuss, share and spread their ideas and visions on sustainable concepts.



GINA stands for "Geometry and Functions in 'N' Adaptations", which basically means that designers from both BMW and BMW Group DesignworksUSA were allowed to throw out the rulebook. This is most evident in the GINA Light Visionary Model's outer skin, which is made entirely out of textile fabric that's pulled taut around a frame of metal and carbon fiber wires. The skeleton of the car is controlled by electro-hydraulic devices and can actually move and change shape beneath the fabric skin. For instance, the headlights of the concept can be exposed or hidden by the car's skin just like blinking eyes, and the hood opens from the center as the fabric parts to expose the engine. This idea extends to the interior, where BMW designers have made visible only those instruments that are required at a certain time, while the rest of the time the same fabric interior "blinks" them out of view. The car itself looks somewhat like a Z4 Roadster, though after viewing the extensive gallery of high-res images below, you'll be amazed how much the outer skin looks like normal sheetmetal. Until, that is, you see how the doors open. They lift up in a semi-scissor fashion and since there are no exposed hinges, the fabric artfully binds up as the door swings open. While the design of the GINA Light Visionary Model is very Bangle-esque with concave and convex surfaces intermingling everywhere you look, it looks appropriate and natural here. The car is very much a concept, meant more to inspire BMW's own designers and engineers rather than excite the public, but now we're excited about shape-changin, fabric-covered cars, anyway.

BMW at TED2007: From top to bottom: Test driving the Hydrogen 7; Dr. Frank Ochmann, BMW's VP of Clean Energy, discusses hydrogen at a special lunch; The Hydrogen 7 in the conference Simulcast Lounge.