$13,717.34…
That’s how much money Elon Musk makes in five minutes.
To put it in a deeper perspective, he’s made $2,743.46 in the minute you took to read this.
Must be nice, right?
It would take the average worker about 17 weeks to earn as much, based on a new study by Gigacalculator. That assumes an average salary of $48,000.
Those numbers will take another jump now that Tesla has been crowned into the S&P 500 Index. Shares have gone crazy since the Monday announcement that S&P Dow Jones Indices would add Tesla to the vaunted Index, which will push index funds to buy around $50 billion in stock.
Even after skyrocketing 500% this year already, Tesla stock rose another 20% after the move was announced. That made for quite a day for Elon, as he added another $8.3 billion to his net worth and pushed past Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg into the number-four slot of richest people in the world.
Could you think of two faces you’d rather throw, business-end, into a Boring flamethrower? I didn’t think so…
Tesla’s market cap has gone from $75 billion at the end of last year, to a mind-blowing $480 billion today.
Musk’s wealth has rocketed $82 billion this year alone…
Tesla shows no signs of slowing down. The election of Joe Biden has added even more wind to the sails of electric vehicle — and renewable energy — stocks of all kinds.
But while everyone is salivating over Musk’s wealth and Tesla’s stock price, there is another energy sector that has been pushed to the back burner. I’m talking about hydrogen fuel cells.
Musk himself has ridiculed hydrogen fuel cells as “fool cells”, “mind-bogglingly stupid”, and even claimed that ‘success is simply not possible.’ But as we all know, when anyone resorts to ad-hominem attacks, it’s usually because they feel threatened.
Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) combine hydrogen stored in a tank with oxygen from the air to produce electricity, with water vapor as the by-product.
I know, because I personally drove a fuel cell car — the Toyota Mirai — down the California coast last year. I even drank the water from the car’s exhaust. It was weird, it was warm, but in the end it simply tasted like water. I survived.
Unlike Teslas, which take hours to fully charge, fuel cell vehicles can be filled in the same amount of time as an internal combustion engine car, and can exceed 300 miles of range on a full tank. In fact, the brand-new 2021 model of the Mirai that I drove is poised to get over 400 miles per tank.
But I’m not banking on hydrogen cars for the consumer market…
Let’s start with the big picture: hydrogen fuel cells are really just getting started.
Bank of America just came out with a new report that lays out a very bullish case for the hydrogen economy going forward, saying it’s about to hit a “tipping point”.
“We believe we are reaching the point of harnessing the element that comprises 90% of the universe, effectively and economically,” the bank noted.
The hydrogen economy is currently on track to generate annual revenues of $2.5 trillion by 2050, according to the Hydrogen Council, an industry group. The total indirect infrastructure investment, including for fuel-cell equipment, could be as high as $11 trillion by 2050, the bank said.
Fuel cells offer advantages in terms of range and refueling times, making them ideal for segments like trucking.
That strategy is getting some political headwinds, as the California Air Resources Board just passed the Advanced Clean Truck Regulation, which requires increasing percentages of new truck purchases to be zero-emission starting in 2024. 75% of all new Class 4 to 8 trucks and 40% of all new Class 7 and 8 tractors are supposed to be zero-emission by 2035, and 100% by 2045.
Fifteen other U.S. states are following suit and intend on implementing similar measures, starting with a requirement for 30% of new medium- and heavy-duty truck sales to be zero-emission by 2030 and increasing to 100% by 2050.
Hydrogen fuel cells have quietly had a banner year, and are poised to grow exponentially over the next few years. While Tesla’s stock has already had a massive run-up, many of the lesser-known fuel cell companies have been slowly creeping up there without the benefit of daily media coverage.
I’ve personally made 300% on one fuel cell company, and you can do the same.
While we may not be able to pull in $2,743.46 a minute like Elon Musk, we could easily bank triple-digit gains from the coming trend from his “fool cell” nemesis.
Godspeed,
Jimmy Mengel
Managing Editor, Outsider Club
