Skip to footer

Elon Musk calls hydrogen cars a waste of time

Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Motors, has already made disparaging comments about his electric car competitors the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt. Now, Elon Musk has a few choice about hydrogen cars. 

|
Stephen Lam/Reuters/File
Elon Musk, Chief Executive of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, attends the Reuters Global Technology Summit in San Francisco over the summer.
  • By Antony Ingram Guest blogger

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is not a man to mince his words. We already know he's not a fan of other electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf or Chevrolet Volt, he doesn't really like plug-in hybrids, and he's quick to step in and defend his company whenever there's a hint of negative publicity.

So it's not surprising that when the subject of fuel cell cars came up at the recent Tesla service center opening in Munich, Musk was only too happy to share his thoughts.

They're "a waste of time", according to Musk. Well, he uses a slightly different phrase to that. But the meaning is similar, we guess...

The trouble is, Musk says, that hydrogen and fuel cells are a technology that the manufacturers dabbling in the tech don't really believe in. It's more like "a marketing thing", he says, without elaborating. "If you take best-case scenario," he adds, that in terms of power density and cost, "fuel cells don't even equal the current state-of-the-art in lithium-ion batteries".

Hydrogen does have its supporters of course, at least publicly. Several automakers are in partnerships with other countries to develop the technology, while firms such as Hyundai, Toyota and BMW all aim to have production fuel cell vehicles on the road in the next half-decade.

Toyota--who has worked with Tesla on cars like the RAV4 EV--will launch its hydrogen fuel cell car in 2015. We'd love to be a fly on the wall in any meetings between Musk and Toyota representatives if fuel cells come up in conversation...

Ultimately, Musk says hydrogen is useful for the first stage of rockets (something we imagine he knows a bit about, as CEO of SpaceX) but not a lot of use in cars.

Given how seriously some automakers are starting to take Tesla, we wonder if the manufacturers themselves are getting a little nervous?

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Elon Musk calls hydrogen cars a waste of time
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2013/1024/Elon-Musk-calls-hydrogen-cars-a-waste-of-time
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe