On March 14 2006 BMW announced that it will produce hydrogen cars within 2 years. This announcement was a major surprise to the car industry, since the company had recently announced that production would begin in 2010. Several car companies have been planning to release hydrogen cars after 2010 but BMW's decision will likely bring the whole industry forward. BMW's hydrogen cars, now in their 7th generation, are considered to have the highest level of performance. They run on either gas or hydrogen and reach speeds up to 134mph (216kph). One model, a racecar, reaches speeds up to 187 mph (300kph). A company CEO said, "The message we wanted to send is that you can have fun driving and be environmentally conscious at the same time."

Hydrogen cars are part of a global "hydrogen economy" which is predicted to arrive around the year 2020. Largely cut off from oil supplies, the nation of Iceland has already piloted such an economy. Hydrogen is produced from wind and hydro power, distributed to hydrogen filling stations and transferred to a fleet of buses in the capital city of Reykjavik.

BMW's cars serve as a bridge between gas combustion cars and hydrogen fuel-cell cars which have zero emissions apart from water vapor. BMW's engines burn hydrogen while fuel-cells extract the power through chemical diffusion, like batteries.

In the future, cars will probably use various fuels apart from hydrogen. Hydrogen is extremely difficult to work with, being so light that it floats right through the atmosphere into outer space. Other sorts of fuel-cells and batteries are being developed, using synthetic petroleum products produced through wind turbines, solar panels or conversion of plants or algae. Hydrogen will likely still be used to power cell phones and various other electronic devices. Ultimately, scientists plan to base the entire energy system on hydrogen, the fuel of the Sun, through Sun-like hydrogen fusion reactors. Fusion reactors have the potential for enormous amounts power like nuclear reactors but use hydrogen from water instead of deadly and rare uranium.

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