LOS ANGELES – The BMW Hydrogen 7 — the first hydrogen-powered luxury sedan — recently pulled into Los Angeles, finishing a more than 4,000 mile cross-country journey featuring hydrogen-powered cars by the world’s leading automakers in the 2008 Hydrogen Road Tour. The purpose of the tour was to show that leading automakers and energy producers are doing their part to move away from fossil fuels to hydrogen, and showcase the cooperation among forward-thinking lawmakers, NGOs, the DOT, DOE, and the industry, according to www.marketwatch.com.

Logging an unprecedented “strictly hydrogen” cruising range of over 200 miles, the BMW Hydrogen 7 mono-fuel completed the two-week, 31 city tour, tour with outstanding reliability, leaving only a trail of potable water vapor in its tracks. The 200-mile cruising range is equivalent to over 25mpg. In the BMW Hydrogen 7 bi-fuel vehicle, the cruising range topped 125 miles. By optimizing the combustion process in the mono-fuel Hydrogen 7, the vehicle achieved an increase in range of over 60 percent over the bi-fuel Hydrogen 7.

Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine kicked off the tour by driving a BMW Hydrogen 7 off the starting line when the tour began in Portland, Maine, on Aug. 11.

BMW provided a fleet of four hydrogen-powered cars — two BMW Hydrogen 7 mono-fuel vehicles that use only liquid hydrogen and two BMW Hydrogen 7 bi- fuel vehicles that can switch from hydrogen to gasoline. The four BMW vehicles along with the core BMW CleanEnergy team were on the road for the entire two-week tour.

The Hydrogen Road Tour is a partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Energy, the California Fuel Cell Partnership, and the National Hydrogen Association. In addition to BMW, participants included Daimler, GM, Honda, Hyundai-Kia, Nissan, Toyota, and VW. Providing clean, domestically produced hydrogen fuel for this tour were Linde, BMW’s hydrogen fuel partner for the Tour, and Air Products.

The tour fleet included the mono-fuel version of the BMW Hydrogen 7, equipped with a V-12 internal combustion engine (ICE), which has been engineered to run exclusively on hydrogen. It was created to showcase the zero CO2 and low emissions potential and feasibility of a dedicated hydrogen internal combustion engine (ICE).

The Hydrogen 7’s V-12 mono-fuel ICE produces no CO2 and near-zero emissions, while not sacrificing performance. In fact, the tailpipe emissions are so infinitesimal they pushed the limits of current emission testing technology.

See the Tour online at www.hydrogenroadtour.com.