Santa Clara, CA (US). The BMW Group and Airbus have pushed quantum computing forward another step to leverage its significant potential for future mobility solutions. At the Q2B Conference in Silicon Valley, the companies have unveiled the winners of the Quantum Computing Challenge, an international initiative to identify and mature quantum solutions for the most promising mobility applications.

Quantum computing has the potential to impact various industries by speeding up our responses to an array of computational challenges, from optimising supply chains and manufacturing processes to improving vehicle and aircraft engineering. Quantum-inspired algorithms, already able to run today on classical high-performance computers, can be used to impact the design of the next generation of mobility solutions and give us a glimpse of the significant impact real quantum algorithms will have on future mobility solutions.

"Quantum technology has the power to redefine innovation across industries. This year’s Airbus and BMW Group Quantum Computing Challenge underscores the importance of cross-industry partnerships in accelerating the journey from groundbreaking research to practical applications," said Robert Bruckmeier,General Manager Computing & Network Artificial Intelligence at BMW Group. "While we are still in the early stages, the progress made in this challenge reaffirms our belief in quantum technology’s potential to drive extraordinary advancements for the automotive industry.”

“The teams have achieved outstanding progress, and the results of this challenge confirm that quantum technologies have the potential to shape the next generation of aircraft,” said Isabell Gradert, Vice President Central Research and Technology at Airbus. “Quantum technology is no longer confined to only fundamental research. Even if it might still be a long way off, it’s clearly advancing towards industrial applications, and we must collaborate with the best experts in the world so that we can fully leverage its potential as soon as it becomes viable,” she added.

The results of the challenge will enable both companies to identify the most promising quantum computing applications to improve the way aircraft and cars are designed, manufactured and operated. A winning team was selected for each of five competition categories:

1. Quantum simulation: The team from the University of Southern California in the U.S. demonstrated that material behaviour such as energy absorption and binding properties can be better understood by using quantum technologies.
2. Quantum solvers: The team from the University of Hamburg in Germany credibly showed how quantum computing could be combined with classical computing solutions to solve complex equations to minimise aircraft noise and maximise aerodynamic efficiency.
3. Quantum-powered logistics: The team from 4colors Research, a start-up from the UK, used quantum computing to minimise CO₂ emissions and other costs required in the supply chain logistics process, a particularly complex challenge for the mobility sector.
4. Quantum machine learning: The team from Quandela, a start-up from France, explored to what extent quantum computing can enhance critical scenario generation, such as transforming limited daytime data into precise and realistic nighttime conditions. The potential application for mobility would be to improve the reliability of autonomous systems in diverse environments.
5. Open category: The team from TU Delft in the Netherlands provided a novel solution in q​uantum composite design. Their work stood out for its real-world applicability, specifically addressing optimisation techniques in the layering of carbon fibre materials. The weight-saving properties of carbon fibre are particularly important to reducing fuel consumption in the aviation and automotive industries.

All finalists in this competition were given access to quantum resources through Amazon Web Services (AWS) to run their algorithms, as well as an opportunity to work with aerospace, automotive and quantum experts from the BMW Group and Airbus.

Launched in December 2023 and hosted by The Quantum Insider, the Quantum Computing Challenge aims to inspire the global quantum computing community to take solutions out of the lab and put them into practice in the field of transportation. A jury composed of world-leading quantum computing experts – from academia to industry – teamed up with the BMW Group and Airbus to select five winners from more than 100 submissions. Each of the five winners was awarded a prize of €30,000.

Munich. The BMW Group is endowing RWTH Aachen University with a new professorship in "Quantum Information Systems" in the Department of Computer Science. Last Wednesday saw the official inauguration of Prof Dr Dominique Unruh, who will head the chair. In addition, the funding of an endowed chair at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has already been approved for 2021. The Chair of Quantum Algorithms and Applications will be headed by Prof. Dr Barbara Kraus.

Alexander Buresch, Senior Vice President BMW Group IT, explains the BMW Group's commitment: "Our goal is to create an open software ecosystem that optimally integrates quantum software and hardware and thus accelerates the industrialisation of automotive applications. This is precisely where endowed professors at universities such as the Technical University of Munich and RWTH Aachen make an important contribution to jointly creating pioneering innovations." While the TUM chair lays the algorithmic foundations for industry-relevant applications, the RWTH chair creates concrete software solutions and the necessary software expertise.

Over the past seven years, the BMW Group's commitment to research into quantum computing has led to an increasingly far-reaching understanding of the technology. At the same time, the company is reaching the limits of conventional hardware due to ever larger and more complex optimisation problems, simulations and applications of artificial intelligence. The BMW Group is an established part of the quantum computing ecosystem and an innovation leader in the automotive sector. With a targeted collaboration strategy, the BMW Group is utilising synergies and driving forward the field of quantum computing research while already exploiting the advantages of this technology in its value chain.

"For years, we have been involved in many consortium projects in the fields of battery production, artificial intelligence and system engineering, in bilateral contract research and in the joint organisation of education and research, and now we are also increasingly active in the promising field of quantum computing technology. As a mentor for this exciting and important future topic for the BMW Group, I am looking forward to working with Prof Dr Unruh and Prof Dr Kraus and to the results of our joint research," says Stefan Floeck, Senior Vice President Product Line MINI and Compact Class BMW.

Powerful optimisation algorithms, simulations and artificial intelligence in the areas of planning, production and logistics - this requires more and more computing power due to the growing complexity and problem sizes. Quantum computing was identified back in 2017 as a potential answer to the end of Moore's Law, which means that the computing power available worldwide will no longer continue to increase exponentially as before. The BMW Group therefore established a dedicated quantum computing team that is already contributing to the company's value creation by reformulating real-world problems from development, production, distribution and many other areas and solving them with quantum (inspired) algorithms. In collaboration with Amazon Web Services, for example, the movements of robot arms during the sealing of the underbody were optimised and it was discovered that quantum computing-inspired algorithms have the potential to reduce the cycle time at the Munich plant by up to 10%.

Other promising use cases include the simulation of battery and fuel cells, numerical simulations of vehicle aerodynamics and acoustics, efficient training of machine learning models and many other areas. Today, the processing of such computationally intensive processes often represents the bottleneck in the development of new applications and products.

The BMW Group is a co-founder of the QUTAC consortium, in which eleven of the largest German companies are working together to advance quantum computing from an industrial perspective and conduct application-related research. The BMW Group is also a member of a total of four funded projects that bring together excellent academic partners with commercial enterprises and start-ups with different focuses in order to investigate the potential of quantum computing using real industry use cases.


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Santa Clara (CA), 6 December 2023 - Airbus and BMW Group launch a global Quantum Computing Challenge entitled “The Quantum Mobility Quest” to tackle the most pressing challenges in aviation and automotive that have remained insurmountable for classical computers.

This challenge is the first-of-its-kind, bringing together two global industry leaders to harness quantum technologies for real-world industrial applications, unlocking the potential to forge more efficient, sustainable and safer solutions for the future of transportation.

"This is the perfect time to shine a spotlight on quantum technology and its potential impact on our society. Partnering with an industry leader like BMW Group enables us to mature the technology as we need to bridge the gap between scientific exploration and its potential applications. We’re seeking the best-in-class students, PhDs, academics, researchers, start-ups, companies, or professionals in the field, worldwide to join our challenge to create a massive paradigm shift in the way aircraft are built and flown." says Isabell Gradert, Vice President Central Research and Technology at Airbus.

“Following the success of previous editions of Quantum Computing Challenges by BMW Group and Airbus, we are gearing up for a new wave of innovation, exploring the technology capabilities for sustainability and operational excellence.” said Dr. Peter Lehnert, Vice-President, Research Technologies at BMW Group. “The BMW Group is clearly aiming at positioning itself at the crossroads of quantum technology, the global ecosystem, and cutting-edge solutions. By doing so, we strongly believe in major advances when it comes to sustainable materials for batteries and fuel cells, to generate unique and efficient designs, or to enhance the overall user experience in the BMW Group Products”.

Quantum computing has the potential to significantly enhance computational power and to enable the most complex operations that challenge even today’s best computers. In particular, for data-driven industries like the transportation sector, this emerging technology could play a crucial role in simulating various industrial and operational processes, opening up opportunities to shape future mobility products and services.

Challenge candidates are invited to select one or more problem statements: improved aerodynamics design with quantum solvers, future automated mobility with quantum machine learning, more sustainable supply chain with quantum optimisation, and enhanced corrosion inhibition with quantum simulation. Additionally, candidates can put forward their own quantum technologies with the potential to develop native apps yet to be explored in the transportation sector.

The challenge is hosted by The Quantum Insider (TQI) and divided into two parts, a four-month phase where participants will develop a theoretical framework for one of the given statements, and a second phase during which selected finalists will implement and benchmark their solutions. Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides candidates with an opportunity to run their algorithms on their Amazon Braket quantum computing service.

A jury composed of world-leading quantum experts will team up with experts from Airbus, BMW Group, and AWS to evaluate submitted proposals and award one winning-team with a €30,000 prize in each of the five challenges, by the end of 2024.

Registration opens today, and submissions will be accepted from mid-January through April 30, 2024 here: www.thequantuminsider.com/quantum-challenge.

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Press and Public Relations

Janina Latza
Spokesperson BMW Group IT
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Christophe Koenig
Leiter BMW Group IT, Digital and Driving Experience Communications,
BMW Group Design, Innovations and Digital Car Communications
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E-Mail: Christophe.Koenig@bmwgroup.com

Munich/Toulouse/Cambridge. Airbus, BMW Group and Quantinuum, world leaders in mobility and quantum technologies, have developed a hybrid quantum-classical workflow to speed up future research using Quantum Computers to simulate quantum systems, focusing on the chemical reactions of catalysts in fuel cells.

In a new technical paper, "Applicability of Quantum Computing to Oxygen Reduction Reaction Simulations", the three partners report accurately modeling the oxygen reduction reaction ("ORR") on the surface of a platinum-based catalyst. The ORR is the chemical reaction in the process that converts hydrogen and oxygen into water and electricity in a fuel cell and it limits the efficiency of the process. It is relatively slow and requires a large amount of platinum catalyst, so there is great interest and value in better understanding the underlying mechanisms involved in the reaction.

Using Quantinuum's H-Series Quantum Computer, the collaboration team has demonstrated the applicability of Quantum Computing in an industrial workflow to enhance our understanding of a critical chemical reaction. The three companies plan further collaboration to explore the use of Quantum Computing to address relevant industrial challenges.

Dr. Peter Lehnert, Vice-President, Research Technologies at BMW Group stated: “Circularity and sustainable mobility are putting us on a quest for new materials, to create more efficient products and shape the future premium user experience. Being able to simulate material properties to relevant chemical accuracy with the benefits from the accelerating Quantum Computing hardware is giving us just the right tools for more speed in innovation for this decisive domain.”

As a pioneer in the global automotive market BMW Group recognizes the transformative potential of Quantum Computing and its importance in researching new materials, where it can enable faster and more efficient processes while reducing lab prototypes. Approaching and accurately simulating one of the most fundamental electrochemical processes for the first time using Quantum Computing marks a substantial step towards the sustainable energy transition, benefiting metal-air batteries, and other products with enhanced efficiency.

Isabell Gradert, Vice-President, Central Research & Technology at Airbus said: “We can clearly envision the benefits of the study in our quest for sustainable and hydrogen powered alternatives such as the ZEROe aircraft, which may operate on fuel cell engines. The study confirms that Quantum Computing is maturing at the scale we need for aviation.”

Airbus has identified hydrogen as a promising candidate to power low-carbon aircraft, because it emits no CO2 when flying, when generated from renewable energy. The company previously announced plans to start testing a hydrogen-powered fuel cell propulsion system onboard its ZEROe demonstrator aircraft in the next few years. The company has the ambition to develop the world’s first hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft for market entry by 2035.

Ilyas Khan, Chief Product Officer, Quantinuum said: “We have been excited to be working for some time now to support the BMW Group and Airbus, both leaders in their fields, and both of whom recognize that Quantum Computing could play a pivotal role in advancing future sustainable mobility. In this pioneering work, we demonstrate how to integrate Quantum Computing into the industrial workflows of two of the world's most technologically advanced companies, tackling material science problems that are a prime target for progress using Quantum Computing."

The research team hopes that understanding the ORR reaction provides insights that help them identify alternative materials that may improve the performance and reduce the production costs of fuel cells. Modeling chemical reactions such as the ORR accurately is an intractable task for classical computers, due to the quantum properties of the chemical mechanisms involved, making such simulations a good candidate to benefit from a potential quantum advantage in the future.

The BMW Group

With its four brands BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad, the BMW Group is the world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles and also provides premium financial and mobility services. The BMW Group production network comprises over 30 production sites worldwide; the company has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.

In 2022, the BMW Group sold nearly 2.4 million passenger vehicles and more than 202,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax in the financial year 2022 was € 23.5 billion on revenues amounting to € 142.6 billion. As of 31 December 2022, the BMW Group had a workforce of 149,475 employees.

The success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company set the course for the future at an early stage and consistently makes sustainability and efficient resource management central to its strategic direction, from the supply chain through production to the end of the use phase of all products.

About Quantinuum

Quantinuum is the world’s largest standalone quantum computing company, formed by the combination of Honeywell Quantum Solutions’ world-leading hardware and Cambridge Quantum’s class-leading middleware and applications. Science-led and enterprise-driven, Quantinuum accelerates quantum computing and the development of applications across chemistry, cybersecurity, finance and optimization. Its focus is to create scalable and commercial quantum solutions to solve the world’s most pressing problems in fields such as energy, logistics, climate change, and health. The company employs over 480 individuals, including 350+ scientists and engineers, at eight sites across the United States, Europe, and Japan. For more information, please visit https://www.quantinuum.com. The Honeywell trademark is used under license from Honeywell International Inc. Honeywell makes no representations or warranties with respect to this service.

About Airbus

Airbus pioneers sustainable aerospace for a safe and united world. The Company constantly innovates to provide the most efficient and technologically-advanced solutions in aerospace, defence, and connected services. In commercial aircraft, Airbus offers the most modern and fuel-efficient airliners. Airbus is also a European leader in defence and security and one of the world's leading space businesses. In helicopters, Airbus provides the most efficient civil and military rotorcraft solutions worldwide.