Elon Musk has spoken about a well-known fuel assuring that “it’s stupid”. The South African entrepreneur has not been shy about saying that he does not think it is a good option, despite the fact that it is gaining great popularity in the market. Nor does he hide his more ambitious investments, such as the one he made in Tesla shares.

So far, he has shown himself to be one of the biggest advocates of batteries over hydrogen models. His position comes as no surprise, as he sells electric cars and batteries and domestic and industrial storage solutions.

In 2022, Musk expounded at the Cars of the Future event that hydrogen “is the stupidest way” he could imagine for energy storage. With regard to fuel cells, he has not agreed either.

Elon Musk is not betting on hydrogen, at least for now

Despite its position, hydrogen has gained great popularity in the mobility sector, although in some cases it does not meet expectations in terms of cost, emissions or time savings. However, it has a plus, and that is that it is one of the most efficient elements that has been found to replace natural gas (methane).

Some industries do not support the use of electric power or batteries, so in these instances, hydrogen seems to be the only viable option. H can be understood as an energy vector, attractive more for its density per mass than for its volume.

On the Anglo-Saxon April Fool’s Day 2022 (April 1), Elon Musk expounded that there will be no hydrogen Tesla, nor will it have to be booked with Dogecoin, nor will the company abandon batteries in 2024. To do so, he used irony by stating each of these ideas as if it were an official announcement.

Elon Musk does not hide his rejection of hydrogen

The investor is not shy when it comes to giving his crude opinion on hydrogen and its fuel cells. A few years ago, the topic came up in a talk with journalists at the Automotive News World Congress. Then, he said fuel cells were “extremely dumb.”

“It’s very difficult … to produce hydrogen and store it and use it in an automobile. The hydrogen fuel cell at best doesn’t win against today’s batteries, so obviously…. It doesn’t make sense,” he argued.

He added: “That will become clear in the next few years. There’s… there’s no reason for us to have this debate, I’ve said … my paper on this, it’s going to be super obvious as time goes on, I don’t know what else to say.”

As time has passed, the businessman’s opinion doesn’t seem to have changed much. In June 2020, he tweeted, “Fuel cells = dumb sells.” A line he followed up in July of the same year, “Hydrogen fool sells makes no sense.”

Hydrogen sparks interest in mobility sector

While Elon Musk’s persona carries a lot of weight, just as there are those who share his views, there are others who do not. Companies such as Toyota and Hyundai have already produced hydrogen fuel cell cars.

In 2021, the BMW Group began testing hydrogen fuel cell cars on European roads and in its official announcement described the technology as having “long-term potential to complement internal combustion engines, plug-in hybrid systems and battery electric vehicles”.

Elon Musk is clear about Tesla’s “limits”.

Although there are several manufacturers determined to bet on hydrogen, Elon Musk is clear that Tesla will not abandon electric cars and is confident in their potential. One issue that remains to be seen is the power of hydrogen for engines as powerful as Tesla’s, which are considered the high end of production.

However, we also don’t know to what extent Elon Musk would be able to quickly develop an infrastructure of hydrogen refueling stations like the one he currently has with electricity. This may be another reason why he has failed to recognize the feasibility of the fuel cell, according to experts.

Tesla has always advocated the electrification of the vehicle fleet as a clear step, and has done so for all its models to date. Moreover, other carmakers see it as a hallmark of the legendary brand, so it would make no sense for them to switch to another fuel now (or at least that is what Elon Musk thinks and has conveyed in a somewhat pejorative way).

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