(June 26, 2019) As Volkswagen says all these heart-warming things, that we must stop avoiding the question of climate change and move on to action, we have to remember the recent history of the Volkswagen Group. What VW says in this press release is very nice, to be sure. A few years ago VW was caught red handed cheating on emissions testing. They had rigged the Volkswagen TDI drive train to operate in a super-clean mode while under emissions testing, and to operate in a "normal" (hence polluting) mode in normal operation. VW had to deliver on the Fahrvergnügen promise (German for driving enjoyment). As a result VW has had to pay steep fines, several executives have gone to jail, and suddenly the VW Group is more interested in electric vehicles than before. If that's what it takes to make progress, so be it.
(June 26, 2019) While Hyundai and its partner company Kia have some very well designed electric vehicles, Hyundai is also keen on fuel cell vehicles. In this deal they prove that the primary way to get hydrogen is by extracting it from fossil fuels. Therefore the claim that the hydrogen economy is super clean is largely a fiction. Unless the hydrogen is extracted from a clean source, like water, it is a fossil fuel masquerading as a clean fuel.
