Global Compact Case Study 2002 - BMW Group

BMW CleanEnergy Project.
Global Compact Case Study 2002.
What have we learned?
One thing the BMW Group learned from this research is: The public demand is
very high for government and policies to create stable and reliable framework
conditions for such an innovative approach to a sustainable mobility for the
future.
Besides the normal challenges that occur in such a project that includes partners
which are partly competitors, the key technical challenges remaining are
concerning the implementation of the infrastructure. One of the challenges being
the so-called ”chicken-or-egg-discussion”: Whereas the oil industry will not
commit to building the hydrogen infrastructure without the commitment of the
car manufacturers to introduce a significant amount of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles
to the market, in return the automobile industry will not commit to produce such
vehicles in large numbers without having the necessary infrastructure to provide
fuel. However all industries involved require certain long-term stability with regard
to the political framework to be able to plan for the decades ahead.
The biggest obstacle still to overcome is likely to be the costs. One could
compare the development stage of hydrogen as a fuel with the development of
the combustion engine at the time of its first application in an automobile. On the
one hand hydrogen as a fuel for automobiles is very much in its infancy and on
the other hand the current infrastructure is completely implemented to support
fossil fuels. This means that only with a broad alliance of all parties involved -
research, production, finance, insurance and policy can a shift in technology be
achieved, which will be a feasible and convenient alternative for our customers.
Another thing that we learned about the challenges and successes in working to
diffuse this technology came as we went along with the BMW CleanEnergy
Project: From our research activities as well as from the different awareness
actions like discussions, presentations, exhibitions, brochures, requests for
information and last but not least the BMW CleanEnergy WorldTour we learned
that there is an immense need for information about this technology. This lead us
to create – together with educationalists – didactic learning material for schools,
describing the whole context of the CleanEnergy-System. This material is
currently available in German, English and Mandarin language versions.
BMW Group