By any goal measure, and even in case you assist 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 vehicles blowing up his viewers. No, I don’t imply one thing insane that he stated as soon as. Trump retains mentioning hydrogen vehicles exploding, usually stating {that a} member of the viewers who can 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 potential 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 army deliberately turning the gas cell from a Toyota Mirai right into a bomb to kill Russian invaders hellbent on war-criming their manner by the nation. It isn’t a problem within the U.S. and gained’t be until MAGA crazies borrow a web page out of Ukraine’s playbook.
Precise examples of hydrogen explosions seem like restricted to a truck transporting hydrogen gas in Delaware and a hydrogen fueling station explosion in Norway.
Like all stump speech, Trump repeats a number of of the identical traces each time he goes off on his anti-hydrogen rants. Amongst different nonsensical claims, he repeatedly calls hydrogen a brand new expertise. Even in case you can convey your self to forgive that blatant Isaac de Rivaz erasure, what in regards to the far 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 truly caught on. As a result of it’s a rubbish concept for passenger autos and can actually solely ever work for industrial trucking.
If the above video had simply been a one-off occasion, that will have been one factor. As an alternative, Trump has continued to journey across the nation speaking in regards to the risks of hydrogen vehicles. I used to be capable of finding at the very least 5 extra situations the place he repeated practically an identical 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 comparable that there actually isn’t a lot of some extent 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, they usually don’t wish to do something to threat chopping off the move of these Elon Bucks. In a number of of the clips, you possibly can see him begin to trash EVs, solely to pivot to how dangerous hydrogen is. Was it one thing Musk stated? 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 e-book.
Lastly, earlier than the White Knights of Hydrogen present up in power to yell at me for dismissing the expertise of the longer term, check out how refueling a Hyundai Nexo went for our associates on the Smoking Tire. If it nonetheless solely form of barely works in LA, how does anybody severely assume we’ll have the ability to roll this out nationally? Yeah, not taking place.
