Water can power a car? If you think that’s impossible think again. The technology actually already exists but it is not being made on a commercial scale.

The German automobile maker BMW has produced the world’s first ever hydrogen powered car. While only 100 of these units were produced, you can already imagine if more of these vehicles are on the road.

The initial model – which was named the BMW Hydrogen 7, uses the body of the 760i model. Once you pop the hood, you will notice that the engine is different since it uses gas and hydrogen.  What does this mean? This just means we have not yet totally abandoned are dependence on gas. Given more time and money, the current 4.7 miles per gallon it can travel using water alone could hit double digits in the future.

The biggest challenge to using water as a green energy source as opposed to oil in vehicles is the vehicle engine. While there are cars around like the Prius – which runs on electricity and gas thanks to fuel cell technology, the hydrogen combustion is less than 10 years old, so you could say we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

To prevent the water from evaporating, it has to be stored in a large, 30-gallon, bi-layered and highly insulated tank so the water does not evaporate into compressed gas. Another built in safety mechanism is the valves, which are designed to open should the pressure within the tank exceed 5 bars.

With the success of the BMW H7, the company came out with a new car that is also partly powered by water known as the H2R. While we cannot yet put our garden hose into the fuselage to fill it up, this vehicle does use liquid nitrogen as a fuel.

Tests on this vehicle have shown it can achieve 285hp and reach a top cruising speed of 185.5 miles per hour. It can also accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour under 6 seconds. These are phenomenal numbers for a car that is partially running on water.

So why should we use water as a fuel for our automobiles? Because hydrogen combustion is clean and does not emit harmful gases into the atmosphere, which is unlike cars that run on petrol or diesel that emit carbon monoxide. Studies have shown that it also weighs less than hydrocarbon-based fuels and burns faster than conventional gasoline.

So when can you expect to buy a car that uses water as a green energy source? Hopefully in the next 10 to 20 years. It is really up to the automakers. All we can do is wait until a better and clear car hits the dealership.

Right now, the best option we have available are electric cars. Since its introduction in 1999, more and more people are using electric cars because they don’t want to spend anymore for gasoline. With gas prices continuing to fluctuate wildly, consumers are beginning to look more and more at alternatives.

If water as a green energy source can be used to power a car, why won’t the government and auto makers start to make this function more readily available? Only time will tell.