Why is BMW wasting its time on hydrogen-powered cars? It’s well known that hydrogen is extremely volatile. Hydrogen gas is prone to leaks, and when it does escape, you won’t even know—it’s invisible and odorless. Admittedly, hydrogen is a clean fuel; no one can dispute that. But its production requires massive amounts of energy, making it costly and ensuring that hydrogen at the pump will always be expensive.

And speaking of hydrogen fuel stations, let’s take Europe as an example. There are far more EV superchargers than hydrogen pumps—14,000 versus just 294 across the continent. That simple statistic tells you everything: almost nobody wants hydrogen, except a few politicians in Germany, because it aligns with the country’s National Hydrogen Strategy.

In the United States, where BMW enjoys bumper sales, the picture is even bleaker. Fewer than 100 hydrogen fuel stations exist, compared to 100,000 gas stations and more than 64,000 EV superchargers.

Now, BMW doesn’t employ fools. And yet even I—someone who calls himself stupid—can figure this out: Germany’s National Hydrogen Strategy is a gift to companies like BMW, allowing them to cash in on generous taxpayer-funded subsidies. Make no mistake, BMW knows perfectly well that hydrogen-powered cars are a rabbit hole leading to a dead end.

But the lure of government funding is enough for BMW to follow the hydrogen-fuel yellow brick road. BMW’s latest attempt to greenwash its image with the hydrogen-powered iX5 prototype has nothing to do with saving the environment—it’s just a grift.

BMW has been running the hydrogen prototype grift for over 20 years. So why are they still prototyping hydrogen vehicles after three decades of development, when they already have a fleet of next-generation battery-powered cars?

It’s a grift, people—that’s all it is.