The big problem with most environmental concept cars is that they're incredibly boring, for the most part hinting at an age where we'll glide around in pods while wearing spangly white space suits.
Know an environmentally friendly superhero?
So full credit to BMW for apparently following the example set by
's 'Doc' Emmet Brown and his justification for using an Delorean: "the way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"
Replace "time machine" with "hydrogen fuel cell" and you've got this, one of the company's fuel cell research vehicles, a heavily modified i8.
Finished in exposed carbon fibre it looks appropriately mean and futuristic, with a heavily revised front end and modified bodywork to make it even more aerodynamically slippery. The big air intakes at the front are necessary to deal with cooling, and although the company is being coy about the exact technical layout it's reported that the fuel cell is mounted where the three-cylinder engine normally goes. This is fed by an on-board hydrogen tank and produces electricity that drives a rear mounted electric motor.
The power output is given as 245hp - considerably less than the petrol-electric drivetrain of the regular i8 - but still enough to deliver a sub-6 second 0-62mph time.
Of course, we're still a long way from being able to buy a hydrogen-fuelled road car we can top up at the local Asda, but there's certainly an appeal in the idea of a future including cars that don't require you to haul around several hundred kilos of batteries. Apparently this i8 has recently been taken out of use, with BMW's move to jointly develop fuel cell technology with Toyota moving things onto a new generation of prototypes.
Keep making them look like this, and we might stay interested.
