FIRST LOOK: BMW announces 2028 hydrogen car will be an X5
Good news from Munich this morning – BMW has confirmed its long-awaited 2028 hydrogen production car will indeed be an X5.
For the first time, the new X5 line-up will offer customers a choice of five powertrains – petrol, diesel, plug-in hybrid, battery electric, and now hydrogen fuel cell. The hydrogen model will be badged iX5 Hydrogen and will go into production in 2028.
BMW has released fresh images of the camouflaged car testing on German roads, and until now, BMW wouldn’t say what shape its first hydrogen car would take, but today’s reveal confirms the pilot-fleet iX5s were the warm-up act and the actual production car coming will also be an X5.
The camouflaged car carries the same Neue Klasse design language BMW revealed on the new iX3 in Munich last week – sharper surfacing, slimmer lights and a more upright stance – but here in full X5 size.
One million kilometres of testing
Nearly 100 examples of the current-generation iX5 Hydrogen have been in service since 2023, racking up more than a million kilometres in over 20 countries.
The fleet was used to validate hydrogen’s everyday usability in everything from arctic cold to desert heat, and to gather data for the production car.
The new model will use BMW’s third-generation fuel cell system, co-developed with Toyota, with a more compact design, higher power output and improved efficiency.
Prototypes of the production drivetrain are already being built at BMW’s competence centres in Munich and Steyr, with Landshut supplying key system components.
BMW’s tech-open strategy
Joachim Post, BMW’s development chief, said: “With the launch of the new BMW X5 in five drive variants, we are once again demonstrating our leadership as a technology pioneer. Hydrogen plays a key role in global decarbonisation. That’s why we are continuing to drive this technology forward.”
BMW says hydrogen will become the second pillar of its electric mobility line-up alongside battery-electric vehicles from 2028.
The company also points to its HyMoS (Hydrogen Mobility at Scale) initiative, which is working to pool demand from cars, trucks and buses to make hydrogen stations more viable in metropolitan areas.
And if you think this is BMW’s first go at hydrogen, think again. The company has been experimenting with hydrogen since the 1970s – from the hydrogen-burning 520h saloon to the Hydrogen 7 V12 of the mid-2000s – making this production X5 the culmination of five decades of work.
