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For Patrick Koller, boss of the new entity resulting from the merger between Faurecia and Hella, hydrogen is the real solution for the future to massively decarbonize mobility. It not only solves use case and economic model issues, but above all, it restores industrial sovereignty that could be taken by China in the case of battery-powered electric cars. Patrick Koller ensures that Sybio, his joint venture with Michelin, will be able to provide very competitive solutions from 2030. For Koller, Symbio - a company specializing in fuel cells, founded in 2010 by Fabio Ferrari, in which Michelin entered the capital in 2014 before transforming it into a joint venture with Faurecia in 2019 - is "a jewel, a diamond to conserve ". He says the hydrogen car will compensate for the shortcomings of the battery-powered electric car. According to him, they very different solutions. The first is an issue of sovereignty related to metal supplies. "We are going to move from a dependence on oil to an even stronger dependence on the rare earth elements currently needed for electrification, " he replied to journalists during the presentation of Forvia's half-year results. “90% of metal refining is done in China, ” he added. "While we only need platinum that can be recycled from catalytic converters" to make fuel cells. France has extensive experience with the hydrogen technology value chain. From an automotive perspective, the sector produces tanks (an essential and very expensive element to withstand the pressure), depressurization valves and the fuel cell. Symbio has also just opened a factory near Lyon which should make it possible to increase the production of fuel cells on a large scale in order to lower their unit price. The French hydrogen industry also includes hydrogen producers such as Air Liquide, but also EDF and Engie, which are investing massively in green hydrogen production capacity. Finally, a start-up, Hopium, even aims to produce very high-end hydrogen cars, to complete a quasi-sovereign value chain. For Patrick Koller, there is another major issue with the hydrogen car. According to him, this technology effectively solves the infrastructure problem posed by electric vehicles. Motorway areas will have to be massively equipped with fast charging stations, up to 80 per service station, but the cost of this infrastructure will not be borne by any economic model. "The investments required on the main axes are colossal to meet the needs of a few days a year," he says. Speaking of the economic model, the Koller estimates that he will be able to offer a complete hydrogen traction chain for a 100 kWh car for between 7,000 and 8,000 euros in 2030. “I don't think that battery technology will reach this price." Patrick Koller cites an increasing number of contracts and that his order book for the hydrogen activity has now reached 500 million euros. The contract with Stellantis (Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, DS, Fiat, Fiat Professional, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Mopar, Opel, Peugeot, Ram and Vauxhall) is an excellent opportunity, particularly in light commercial vehicles in Europe, but above all in American pick-ups, the most profitable segment of the market. The market potential is colossal, and present a solution to decarbonize the automotive industry. Koller strongly believes in carbon-free mobility (but not in 2035 contrary to the obligation adopted by the European Union), and that hydrogen will be the real solution. He qualifies, however, by insisting on the fact that the battery car has real arguments in many cases of use, in particular exclusively urban mobility. But he goes further than questions of mobility and judges that hydrogen will provide an answer to industrial decarbonization, and will make it possible to store energy. For now, however, the automotive market lacks models. Only Toyota, Honda and Hyundai have marketed cars (with BMW on their way), while waiting for the French Hopium. But for Patrick Koller, the first models will eventually arrive... He believes even Tesla will eventually get there.

Agreed. I have long supported hydrogen and related technology. There ARE issues but they are rapidly being overcome - the nature of the storage vessel on the vehicle has been one, but there is now technology for 'soft' cells which will obviously support variety of placement in vehicular configurations. Electric vehicles had the same issue. That the industry has rushed headlong into charging stations is a concern for the widespread rollout of hydrogen vehicles, but European plans for using current petrol and diesel stations for this is moving ahead at significant pace. Transfer of hydrogen from creation source to distribution point is being resolved through use of existing gas lines, and on-site production. It can happen. I feel it must happen.

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. 😢