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Germany Uses Converted Tesla Model Y To Showcase 'Green Hydrogen'Sadly, the Model Y is already much more efficient than it is once converted to a 'Hyber Hybrid.'
Sep 24, 2021
By: Steven Loveday
A converted version of the Tesla Model Y was recently shown off in Germany as part of efforts to promote "green hydrogen." The crossover was referred to as a "hyper hybrid" by those involved in the project. Teslas are the most popular EVs across the globe, so using one to highlight something is advantageous. However, using the Tesla brand to promote hydrogen is highly questionable.
It's well-known that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is an advocate against hydrogen, primarily due to its lack of efficiency compared to battery-electric vehicles. The Model Y in its unmodified configuration is one of the most efficient EVs on the market, and converting it to a hydrogen vehicle would make it much less efficient, and thus, not as good for the environment.
Accord to a report by Teslarati, based on information from BMBF (@BMBF_Bund), German Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek revealed the hydrogen-powered Tesla Model Y, which is powered by synthetic methanol based on green hydrogen.
According to Google Translate, the above tweet reads:
"Federal Minister Anja Karliczek presented the prototype of a car in Berlin today that can be powered by the synthetic fuel methanol. For this purpose, according to #Karliczek, CO2 exhaust gases from the steel industry were "recycled" into fuels."
The end goal here is to produce and promote the most efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles possible. However, converting the highly efficient Model Y to a car with a synthetic methanol engine seems to go against that goal. Moreover, the project uses a Tesla vehicle to draw attention to hydrogen, which some people may see as bad judgment.
In the tweet below, which was added as a reply to the above tweet, "Robert Schlögl explains how the methanol car presented today works & what opportunities the technology offers for a climate-neutral future."
The professor shares via Teslarati:
“The urgency of climate protection requires a rapid and comprehensive entry into renewable energy. In a global market for renewable energy, carbon-based energy sources such as methanol are key building blocks. The serial hybrid drive concept presented here combines the advantages of the efficient electric drive and the energy-dense and easily accessible synthetic fuel methanol. This concept must be further optimized by the research project presented here."
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Check out all of the details and then let us know what you think of this news. Are you on board with hydrogen? Should Germany have used the Tesla Model Y to promote the fuel?
Source: BMBF via Teslarati
Check out all of the details and then let us know what you think of this news. Are you on board with hydrogen? Should Germany have used the Tesla Model Y to promote the fuel?
Source: BMBF via Teslarati
Tesla Motors
On Wednesday, German Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek revealed an automotive Frankenstein creation: A Tesla Model Y that had been converted into a hydrogen vehicle that she called a “hyper hybrid.”
The goal was to demonstrate the future of clean transportation. But as Teslarati notes, the decision to modify a Tesla — perhaps the most well-known electric vehicle out there — rather than a gas-burning car is somewhat baffling.
Fool Cells
It’s not clear whether Tesla was involved in the project to take a Model Y and make it run on synthetic methanol, which Teslarati reports costs about $10 million. But the odds aren’t great, given Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s distaste for hydrogen fuel cell technology.
During a public spat last year with Trevor Milton, the now-disgraced CEO of the hydrogen automaker Nikola Motors, Musk referred to hydrogen fuel cells as “fool cells” and called the technology “staggeringly dumb.”
Model Unit
The actual “hyper hybrid” Tesla was meant to represent the concepts behind hydrogen fuel more so than to become a street-ready vehicle. The Carbon2Chem initiative, which aims to decarbonize the steel industry, designed the car to demonstrate new ways to save energy and recycle fuel, according to Teslarati.
“Today we are building a very interesting bridge between these two points: The use of methanol from ‘recycled’ CO2 from industry as a fuel in road transport,” Karliczek said at the Wednesday announcement. “But the methanol car itself is also an ‘innovation showcase’ for low-emission, resource- and energy-efficient mobility of tomorrow.”
READ MORE: Tesla Model Y converted into green hydrogen car to show “Hyper Hybrid” innovations [Teslarati]
More on Tesla and Hydrogen: A Brief History of Elon Musk’s Festering Feud With Rival Automaker Nikola
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