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BMW is advancing the series production of hydrogen cars. Oliver Zipse, CEO announced to handelsblatt: Hydrogen as an energy carrier will play an important role in many regions of the world. To this end, the BMW Group is launching “the everyday testing of near-series vehicles with a hydrogen fuel cell drive on European roads,” according to a statement from the company. The first small series of BMW hydrogen cars is to be presented before the end of 2022. Series production: BMW plans hydrogen as an important powertrain pillar “The upper end of our X family, which enjoys great popularity with our customers, is particularly suitable here,” says Zipse. Overall, the energy crisis is driving hydrogen propulsion enormously. “I can well imagine that we will also see the fuel cell in series production in the new class in the future,” explains CEO Zipse. BMW has been working on fuel cell technology together with Toyota since 2013. Just recently, a Chinese automaker announced the first mass production of hydrogen cars. In Germany, researchers at the Aerospace Center announced a hydrogen car at a low price. Klaus Fröhlich, Board Member for Development at BMW AG, explained: "We are convinced that different alternative drive systems will coexist in the future, as there is no single solution that covers all the mobility requirements of customers worldwide." “The hydrogen fuel cell drive can become a fourth pillar in our drive portfolio in the long term.” With road testing of BMW hydrogen cars proven successful, the direction is set, but before series production starts, there are hurdles to overcome. Axel Rücker, Program Manager Hydrogen Fuel Cell at the BMW Group, explains: "We have a chicken-and-egg problem with hydrogen propulsion." “As long as the network of hydrogen filling stations is so thin, the low demand from customers will not enable profitable series production of fuel cell cars. And as long as there are hardly any hydrogen cars on the roads, operators will be reluctant to expand their refuelling network.”

Facebook... I don't want to. Oh well. Good excuse to not use it.

Sold my AMG E36 for £12k, about 15 years ago. Made £2k on it, after sorting some bits and pieces. Saw it for sale 2 years ago - £9k. How is this possible? 1 of 7 RHD AMG E36 wagons, handbuilt engine... Old Mercs take forever to appreciate, but when they do, prices go stratospheric in very little time.

Some debate about this. Hopefully an announcement from BMW will help. "If a vehicle is initially ordered with heated seats, that option will remain fully operational for the life of the vehicle," BMW said. It clarifies, "BMW Functions on Demand on the other hand is designed to offer premium features through software upload that use data and sensors from factory option hardware already built into BMW vehicles." So hackers will be still able to make money, in accordance with free market attitudes. Ransoming your vehicles ability to do stuff may also present opportunities.

The illicit lovechild of a 1930s 328, a 1969 Fiat Gamine Vignale, and a 2021 R18 ?

More to the point, I've never heard "Oh Lord, won't you buy me a a BMW?"

I'd not seen or heard about the red coupe. That truly is - in my opinion! - way over-priced. Surely there must be something else about it for it to command that sort of money. Rusty, needs an engine - rego on hold? When listing our car, I tried hard to ensure it was priced a little below the market as we did - do - want to sell, and not just test the market. It's not simply a 'want to sell' - it's a 'can't use it so have to sell'. And given it hasn't sold, at a price below what the current market seems to suggest is an appropriate price, I have to question how many cars are actually selling for even close to asking. Might just be our car, of course. Or location. Which would be very sad for us.

I think we're through the FOMO stage of E30 price rises, meaning that while some prices remain high, only those items which are genuinely excellent will realise $BIG. This means that sale prices of items (as opposed to listing prices) will start to vary more. Really good stuff has always, and will always, realise high prices, but we may be entering more of a buyer's market instead of the seller's free-for-all that we have seen. YMMV, opinions differ, etc.

Also true of old(er) Land Rovers - Series and Defender prices are way, way up. Diesel-engined Discoverys command a 100-300% price premium with asking of 5-figures (up from $2-6k 18 months ago), and Classic Range Rovers have gone from little more than scrap value to $6-10k+ for a <ahem> "project". Any of these are only $20-30k and 100s of hours hard work away from being a nice $20k vehicle.

I sold a garage full of E30 parts for $500 just over 3 years ago. And two coupes at about $1500 the pair... At the time there was no choice. We were moving and it all had to go. 😢

Just seen a PFL rolling shell, dead rego, advertised for $4k. And a pair of used Koni springs for an E30 listed at $200. E30 tax is alive and well!

I'm wondering what some of them are for!