Hydrogen 7 banned in NY/NJ tunnels

Recently the NY Times was able to spend some time with the BMW Hydrogen 7, for the most part they came away from the experienced pleased though there was one glaring issue.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has made the decision to ban the car from the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels as well as the lower level of the George Washington Bridge, this essentially makes traversing the Hudson a bit more time consuming and frustrating since there are not as many options to beat the traffic.

It appears that the lingering effect of the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 is still present today. The Hydrogen 7 is designed with many safety systems to ensure it is safe and has been proven by the track record of cars on the roads which have have logged over one million miles already. Unlike the Hindenburg the H7 utilizes hydrogen in liquid form by super chilling it, any vapor is systematically released in a controlled manor through a roof venting system. The 20 or so H7s in the US are capable of running the internal combustion V12 off of either liquid hydrogen or premium gasoline. When running on hydrogen the only byproduct produced is the good old H2O.

BMW has constructed a temporary hydrogen filling station at Port Jersey and has proposed building another near the corporate headquarters in Woodcliff, NJ as well.

Source: NYTimes