Elon Musk.

Gulf Today Report

Toyota and Hyundai embarrassed billionaire Elon Musk with going ahead with hydrogen fuel cells cars.

Tesla founder Musk earlier described hydrogen fuel cells as "absolutely ridiculous and illogical", and that hydrogen is difficult store and use in a car, but this view was not taken by all manufacturers.

Contrary to Musk's beliefs, companies like Toyota and Hyundai have produced hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, and smaller manufacturers like Riversimple are doing the same.

The BMW Group also announced that it had begun testing vehicles that use a hydrogen fuel cell engine, and described the technology as having a long-term, superior and long-term potential to replace internal combustion engines.

In turn, a Toyota spokesman said that fuel cell cars would certainly play a role in decarbonising transportation, and constitute a more suitable alternative to battery electric vehicles.

Musk's views do not appear to have changed over time.

In June 2020, the CEO of Tesla tweeted, "Fuel cells = foolish selling," and in July of that year he also tweeted: Hydrogen fool sells make no sense.”

The US Environmental Protection Agency describes hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as being similar to electric vehicles in that they use an electric motor instead of an internal combustion engine.

With the main difference being that electric cars contain batteries that must be charged by connecting the car to a dedicated charging point, while fuel cell vehicles use hydrogen gas to generate electricity.