cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/52369691
According to the complaint, Toyota and its hydrogen partner, FirstElement Fuel (True Zero), intentionally concealed evidence of:
hydrogen leaks near hot engine components, creating explosion risks
sudden power loss, acceleration, and braking failures leading to collisions and injuries
a collapsing hydrogen infrastructure, leaving drivers stranded for weeks without access to fuel
aggressive financial collection tactics by Toyota Motor Credit Corporation, targeting owners of inoperable vehicles.
I’m glad the ICE hydrogen engines have been coming out. Not because they’re directly useful. Outside of an engineering challenge (which is perfectly fine), they have no purpose outside of some racing applications.
I like them because it flags people who obviously have no idea what they’re talking about. They like ICEs for what it is. And I do actually get that; from an engineering perspective, there’s a lot of fascinating things going on inside there. However, efficiency was already hydrogen’s biggest weakness. Fuel cells are 40-60% efficient, and is only one part of the hydrogen chain. You’re going to replace that part of a chain with something that has traditionally struggled to get 25% efficiency? Why? You’re doubling down on hydrogen’s biggest weakness. This is the opposite of min-maxing.
So anyway, if they bring that up as anything other than engineering and racing purposes, they’re a moron.
Yeah I’ve seen those, and agree. It’s cool that you can do that stuff, but it’s not gonna happen. Just use BEV already and build more trains.