Marc Tarpenning, a Tesla co-founder, shared his thoughts on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Tarpenning called hydrogen fuel cell vehicles “a scam” on an Internet History Podcast. Fuel cell technology, which has been around for over 100 years, runs on the electricity created from bonding hydrogen and oxygen. The only byproducts of fuel cell cars are heat and water, proponents of the technology say about its environmentally-friendly attributes. Nevertheless, some are not a fan of the technology. Tarpenning said hydrogen is uniquely bad. “There’s a saying in the auto industry: Hydrogen is the future of transportation and always will be. And it’s a scam as far as I can tell, because the energy equation is terrible,” the executive said. Further, Tarpenning argues that hydrogen is difficult to get, compress and use in fuel, even when it is very abundant. He added that on a planet where people live, all the hydrogen is very reactive.

“It’s bound up into water, wood and everything else,” said the Tesla co-founder.