If you ask anyone what the future of cars looks like, they’re bound to point to Tesla.
Elon Musk may be a genius, but it isn’t his business skills that draw that distinction.
It’s his ability to raise and retain capital and build hype around his products.
Unfortunately for him, there simply are no ways to gloss over the fundamental problems that fully-electric cars present.
Sure, Tesla’s cars work great in cities with charging stations in every parking lot, but that only goes so far.
Consumers know it too. That’s why the main reasons consumers don’t switch to battery-electric vehicles are the long charging times, issues with range, and cost.
There is another technology that is being quickly adopted that overcomes these hurdles though — fuel cells.
Elon Musk is on the record calling them “fool cells” and “mind-bogglingly stupid.”
That is just him trying to protect what he sees as his own turf.
The simple fact of the matter is that fuel cells can deliver more power at lower weights than purely battery-driven vehicles.
Fuel cell vehicles can be fully refilled in about five minutes instead of waiting over an hour if you can find a supercharging station.
Fuel cell vehicles will scale far better with modifications to existing gas stations and infrastructure. There’s no need to run new high-voltage lines through parking lots and to leave expensive equipment exposed to the elements and mistreatment by anyone who passes by.
Plus the fuel cell vehicles on the road today have ranges from 312 to 380 miles, a large increase in range over 250 miles with brand-new batteries, and with no degradation.
All the fundamentally unsolvable problems associated with Tesla’s vehicles are solved with this tech while keeping the same environmental benefits.
Those problems with batteries get worse and worse as the vehicles get heavier and pull heavier loads. Batteries are astoundingly heavy, and that 30% reduction in weight advantage fuel cells have quickly adds up.
There is a reason that 78% of automotive executives believe fuel cells will be the breakthrough we need for electric mobility.
There is a reason Toyota, Hyundai, BMW, Daimler, and other major carmakers are already using them.
There is a reason they’re being installed in forklifts, heavy-duty trucks, trains, and buses, and even into massive ships and submarines.
According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, more than $17 billion in investments from vehicle manufacturers, gas suppliers, and other private-sector institutions were announced in the first half of 2019 alone.
Right as Tesla’s production gets up to speed, this new technology has emerged as an existential threat:
- Installations jumped 40% between 2018 and 2019
- Cost has decreased 60% since 2006
- Durability has gone up fourfold over the same time
The Department of Energy is throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at this technology. The Department of Defense and the Army Corps of Engineers are working closely with it.
A senior researcher at the DoE said:
“What I’ve seen in the last few years is incredible. The ways industry and investors are embracing [this technology] are making it seem that, as much as the past decade has been the decade of wind and solar, the 2020’s are looking to be the decade of fuel cells.”
A Director of a leading industry energy consultancy took it even further:
“If the 2010s can be seen as the breakout decade for the battery, the 2020s will see the ascendancy of fuel cells.”
No wonder Elon Musk hates fuel cells. They’re a constant reminder that no matter how much hype he can build, Tesla will never overcome these hurdles.
One company stands above the rest with its newest generation of advanced fuel cell designs.
This company already controls 70% to 80% of the global market share for buses and trucks. Chinese companies are clamoring for joint ventures and buying up shares.
Jimmy Mengel just released a comprehensive research report on the company to his readers.
