BMW in EU hybrid car deal

Luxury German carmaker BMW has said it is in talks with the European commission to provide hydrogen-powered official cars to the institution’s top decision-makers. 

BMW told this website that it has contacted the commission with a view to supplying EU environment chief Stravros Dimas and enterprise and industry commissioner Gunter Verheugen with the cutting-edge vehicles.

The offer to the commission coincides with the opening of Brussels’s first liquid hydrogen pump by Total Fina Elf before the summer, a BMW official said.

The move is part of a broader campaign to lease 100 specially made zero-emission BMWs to the world's top decision-makers, according to BMW's Belux spokesman Cristophe Weerts.

“Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California, has already accepted the car”, he said.

The luxurious H7 car, on show at the European business summit last week, is a hybrid running on liquid hydrogen and conventional petrol.

It can cover up to 200 kms while running on hydrogen, with each tankfull costing on average €68.

Brussels' official vehicles came under the spotlight earlier this year when a divided commission locked horns with carmakers over controversail plans to impose Co2 emission cuts on manufacturers. 

Environmentalists argued that EU commissioners were setting a poor example by discussing CO2 cuts while driving around Brussels in heavy emitting cars.

Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has a gas-guzzling Volkswagen Touareg 4x4, while Peter Mandelson has a high-powered Jaguar and Verheugen has a top-end BMW.  

Dimas, who inherited a Mercedes from his predecessor, raised a few eyebrows in Brussels when he allegedly asked for a replacement Toyota Prius, breaking the tradition of EU commissioners using European cars for their official business.

Commission officials said they could neither confirm nor deny BMW's offer, but theParliament.com witnessed a smiling Verheugen trying out the H7 last week at the European Business Summit.

• Previous article
• Next article