By any goal measure, and even when you help his insurance policies, Donald Trump isn’t match to be president. He’s too previous, his thoughts is gone, he’s scared to debate, he’s dodging interviews, and nothing he says makes any sense. Take, for instance, his present obsession with hydrogen automobiles blowing up his viewers. No, I don’t imply one thing insane that he mentioned as soon as. Trump retains citing hydrogen automobiles exploding, typically stating {that a} member of the viewers who could be unrecognizable after the explosion.
Now, earlier than we get too far, hydrogen fuel-cell autos aren’t the Hindenburg, and automakers design them with crash security in thoughts. It’s solely attainable a hydrogen automobile has exploded someplace in some unspecified time in the future, however the one instance I might discover was a current story in regards to the Ukrainian navy deliberately turning the gasoline cell from a Toyota Mirai right into a bomb to kill Russian invaders hellbent on war-criming their method by way of the nation. It isn’t a problem within the U.S. and received’t be until MAGA crazies borrow a web page out of Ukraine’s playbook.
Precise examples of hydrogen explosions look like restricted to a truck transporting hydrogen gasoline in Delaware and a hydrogen fueling station explosion in Norway.
Like every stump speech, Trump repeats a number of of the identical strains each time he goes off on his anti-hydrogen rants. Amongst different nonsensical claims, he repeatedly calls hydrogen a brand new expertise. Even when you can carry your self to forgive that blatant Isaac de Rivaz erasure, what in regards to the rather more current GM Electrovan? Toyota’s work with the FCHV? Honda and the FCX? The Toyota Mirai? Hyundai’s Nexo? None of those are new and, extra importantly, none of them have really caught on. As a result of it’s a rubbish concept for passenger autos and can actually solely ever work for business trucking.
If the above video had simply been a one-off occasion, that will have been one factor. As a substitute, Trump has continued to journey across the nation speaking in regards to the risks of hydrogen automobiles. I used to be capable of finding not less than 5 extra cases the place he repeated practically similar claims, proper right down to telling the viewers they’ll be unrecognizable in the event that they’re ever in a hydrogen-powered automobile when it explodes. They’re additionally all so related that there actually isn’t a lot of a degree in embedding all of them.
Why precisely Trump has determined to make hydrogen fuel-cells enemy primary, proper up there with different People who disagree with him, nobody can say for certain. If I needed to guess, it most likely as a result of Tesla CEO Elon Musk appointed himself Brown-Noser-in-Chief, and so they don’t wish to do something to danger reducing off the move of these Elon Bucks. In a number of of the clips, you may see him begin to trash EVs, solely to pivot to how unhealthy hydrogen is. Was it one thing Musk mentioned? Was it one thing a staffer put in entrance of Trump to distract him from EVs, and now they’ll’t make him cease? Odds are, nobody will ever know till some entry journalist writes one other ebook.
Lastly, earlier than the White Knights of Hydrogen present up in drive to yell at me for dismissing the expertise of the longer term, check out how refueling a Hyundai Nexo went for our mates on the Smoking Tire. If it nonetheless solely form of barely works in LA, how does anybody severely suppose we’ll have the ability to roll this out nationally? Yeah, not taking place.
