Cars.co.za was invited by BMW Group South Africa to attend the 2nd annual President’s Green Hydrogen Summit in Cape Town and witness the signing of a historic Memorandum of Cooperation between Anglo American, Sasol and BMW SA.

The Century City Conference Centre was filled to the brim with delegates from all over the world for the summit and, following a presentation by SA’s Minister of Electricity, Dr Kgoshientso Ramokgopa, to the attendees, the President of the Republic dialled in via video call to address the summit, beginning his speech with commentary about the Springboks’ win over France, which was well received by all.

From left: Craig Miller, Priscilla Mabelane and Peter van Binsbergen sign the historic memorandum in Cape Town.

The CEO of Anglo American Platinum, Craig Miller, the Sasol Executive Vice President for the Energy Business, Priscillah Mabelane, and the CEO of BMW Group South Africa, Peter van Binsbergen, then joined each other on stage to sign the memorandum in a very public manner indeed. The memorandum commits the three multinationals to a partnership that aims to accelerate the adoption of hydrogen mobility in South Africa in both the commercial and passenger segments.

The vehicles in question, which create the demand for hydrogen, are known as FCEVs (fuel-cell electric vehicles) and they truly do come in all shapes and sizes.

Anglo American & Sasol are no strangers to hydrogen

Anglo American in South Africa operates the world’s largest FCEV hydrogen mine truck, a 290-tonne carrying behemoth earth-mover operating at the Mogalakwena mine outside Polokwane, with green hydrogen being produced on site.

Anglo American’s hydrogen fuel-cell-powered 220-tonne mine truck.

Anglo American expects the FCEV market to increase demand for platinum group metals by about 5 million ounces per annum by 2050, which will be a boon for the South African mining industry.

Sasol has been working with the element for 20 years already. In June this year, the company produced its first green hydrogen (as opposed to grey hydrogen, which is produced using energy from coal power stations) and while they are currently only producing 150 kg per day, that figure will balloon to 5 500 kg per day in the near future, when a 69-MW wind plant and 4-MW solar plant come online in June 2024.

BMW Group South Africa has been selected by BMW Group Global to be one of a handful of countries that will test hydrogen vehicles in real-world conditions. We have already driven the iX5 Hydrogen in Belgium last year and you can read that review, or watch the video, here:

Much to the excitement of attendees at the summit, BMW SA secured a test unit of the iX5 Hydrogen for display at the summit, placing it in the lobby for all to get acquainted with.

Sasol will also supply BMW Group SA with a mobile hydrogen refuelling unit (which we suspect will be placed at the Rosslyn plant), which will enable the real-world testing of the FCEVs.

Cars.co.za spent some time with the firm’s CEO at the summit and asked when South African motorists might find a BMW FCEV on local showroom floors; no date has been set, but it will be after 2030.

Van Binsbergen told us that the technology has not matured yet to the point where it is commercially viable – much testing still needs to happen – and he also believes that hydrogen needs to become cheaper per kilogram for the whole ecosystem to make sense to the average motorist.

BMW Group SA’s Peter van Binsbergen says hydrogen-powered BMW models WILL be launched, but only after 2030.

What will happen now however is that BMW will produce a batch of road-legal iX5 Hydrogens, which will be dispatched to all corners of the globe for real-world testing, including right here in South Africa.

BMW Group is pursuing a multiple-drivetrain strategy for its global business. The company believes that there is no silver bullet to carbon-neutral mobility, and a variety of solutions is required to service vastly different markets around the world, a stance that we agree is prudent and positive going forward. BMW believes that hydrogen-powered vehicles will eventually make up about 10% of the cars it sells globally.

It is possible that the iX5 Hydrogen will not become a series production vehicle, but the learnings and technology will be implemented in a wide range of BMWs in due course.

Rest assured that, at some point, SA motorists will have petrol/diesel-powered, hydrogen-powered, hybrid- and battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) to choose from, which is quite exciting in and of itself.

A demonstration of a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle being refuelled – looks familiar, doesn’t it?

Okay, what happens now?

A massive game of chicken and egg, that’s what; for hydrogen cars to be adopted and work on our roads, Sasol needs to roll out the infrastructure across its network of fuel retailers across South Africa, but until there are FCEVs on our roads, there will only be demand from industrial and commercial players.

What is particularly exciting about green hydrogen, however, is that it will be produced locally; it doesn’t have to cross borders, it doesn’t have to be paid for in dollars, it doesn’t have to be loaded onto a ship, traverse vast oceans and then be offloaded in South Africa and, most importantly, the supply of which is not at the mercy of cartels such as Opec. It has the potential to provide South Africa with a fuel that has a much more stable price and a much more predictable supply.

The fuel price is, of course, a major pain point for all South Africans and, at least initially, the price of hydrogen will likely be on a gradual downward trajectory for many years to come as the technology matures and more suppliers come online.

A BMW iX5 Hydrogen is being tested near Antwerp.

There are some use cases which already make sense, say (for instance) forklifts in a warehousing environment, which is already happening in BMW plants around the world and is apparently already in use in some warehousing sites in South Africa (outside of the BMW Group).

Additionally, an FCEV powertrain is better suited to trucks and buses than a BEV one, in our opinion. If you look at the case of buses used in public transport, the buses travel a predictable route and duration, and return to the same depot every evening. This is an almost perfect fit for a hydrogen ecosystem.

It would also make much sense at facilities that require a variety of vehicles to operate, such as airports.

SA is well-placed to manufacture green hydrogen

That’s because we have sun and wind in abundance and this project is so important to the President that essentially the entire project reports directly to his office. In the South African context, the production of green hydrogen has the potential to create jobs, drive investment and even create an export programme.

Toyota has produced a Hilux prototype that utilises elements of the Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle.

BMW was an early player in the hydrogen space; it unveiled the 745 Hydrogen in the early 2000s. However, that was a hydrogen vehicle that utilised an internal combustion engine, where cooled hydrogen was stored on board the vehicle and injected into the cylinders to create combustion.

Van Binsbergen told Cars.co.za that BMW was no longer pursuing that technology, and fuel cells would be the focus of the company in perpetuity.

The iX5 feels exactly like an electric vehicle to drive, and in terms of fuel economy, is said to be capable of travelling 500 km on 6 kg of hydrogen on the WLPT cycle. Doing some rough maths, 1 kg of hydrogen should be good for 100 km of range, and it is predicted that hydrogen will be commercially viable at around $2.50 per kg, or around R45, which means it would cost around R45 in fuel to travel 100 km.

A BMW iX5 Hydrogen’s infotainment screen displays the vehicle’s efficiency in kgH2/100 km.

A petrol-powered X5 might use around 10 L/100 km, which at current fuel prices costs around R250. Therefore, hydrogen really does have the potential to bring running costs down for the average motorist.

There is no indication of what FCEVs might sell for, however, but we do expect that they will be pricier than their traditional ICE-powered siblings. However, given the multiple commercial use cases for hydrogen, it may well be that the last South Africans to make use of hydrogen will be everyday motorists.

Even so, it’s encouraging that large players have already spent years in discussion to get to this point and have now publicly committed to developing the hydrogen ecosystem to the benefit of all South Africans. The ball is certainly rolling and, while it may be early days for sure, we have no doubt that hydrogen is part of the future of our country, both industrially and in the hands of consumer motorists.

We will eagerly be watching this space and will, of course, keep you updated as the story progresses.

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