Theron Mohamed
Thu, November 23, 2023
Elon Musk is CEO of Tesla.Hannibal Hanschke/Getty Images
A mining billionaire who called Elon Musk a "muppet" revisited their dispute this week.
Andrew Forrest hinted Musk is anti-hydrogen as the Tesla chief has bet big on electric batteries.
Both are heavily invested in batteries, but Forrest said EVs won't solve climate change.
An Australian mining billionaire called Elon Musk a "muppet" earlier this year for dismissing hydrogen as a clean fuel. This week he suggested the Tesla chief is anti-hydrogen because he's bet on electric batteries.
Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest, the CEO of Fortescue Metals, was asked by a shareholder at the company's annual meeting on Tuesday about the times he "crossed swords" with the Tesla chief.
"You've touched a really, really raw nerve here," Forrest replied. Fortescue is a major designer of batteries and spends heavily on them, but he doesn't think they're a solution to climate change.
"The miracle marriage is, as you point out, hydrogen with the battery or fuel cell," he continued.
Forrest emphasized that he wasn't just touting hydrogen over electric batteries for his company's benefit, and hinted Musk might be doing the opposite for Tesla's sake.
"Like Musk, I'm heavily invested in batteries," he said. "It's just that, unlike Musk, it's not my own investment."
Andrew Forrest is CEO of Fortescue Minerals.Thomson Reuters
Musk has panned hydrogen as a practical fuel source for vehicles many times. Its low density means it would require a highly pressurized "gigantic fuel tank," making it a "big pain in the ass," he said on a Tesla earnings call in January 2021.
The SpaceX CEO and X owner has also blasted hydrogen as the "most dumb thing I could possibly imagine for energy storage" and "mind-bogglingly stupid," and branded fuel cells as "fool cells."
Forrest – who's 57th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and worth almost $26 billion – has pushed back against Musk's comments. "Anyone, including Elon ... who says hydrogen hasn't got a massive future are muppets," he told a Bloomberg conference in June.
"He should get out and ask himself, 'am I really a climate avenger, or just a businessman?' If he knocks hydrogen then we know he's just in it for a buck," Forrest told The Australian last fall.
Investors have cheered Musk's embrace of electric batteries, sending Tesla up nearly eight-fold since the start of 2020. The EV maker's value has soared from below $100 billion to north of $700 billion in that period.
Fortescue shares have about doubled over the same period, leaving the company worth more than $50 billion.
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