Tesla Model H: Is Tesla really building a hydrogen car?
You might’ve seen it pop up online – a slick-looking Tesla “Model H” with bold styling, a 500-mile range, and claims of hydrogen refuelling in two minutes.
Posts usually come with the same message: “Elon’s hydrogen car is coming.”
But I hate to break it to you. It’s not. Because it doesn’t exist.
The image doing the rounds started out as an April Fools’ joke back in 2023 – a fan render with some made-up specs and a few clever design cues.
It was clearly labelled at the time, but that hasn’t stopped it being reposted ever since, usually stripped of context and topped with an AI-generated headline like “Hydrogen Tesla Leaked?”
The truth is that Tesla isn’t building a hydrogen car. And there’s never been any sign that it plans to.
Musk still thinks hydrogen cars are a waste of time
Elon Musk’s view on hydrogen is pretty well known. He’s repeatedly dismissed hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as inefficient, expensive, and pointless – calling them “fool cells”, “staggeringly dumb”, and “mind-bogglingly stupid” over the years.
Tesla has never shown a hydrogen prototype, never announced a fuel cell programme, and never hinted that a car like the “Model H” is in the works. There is no secret project. It’s just not a thing.
Hydrogen does appear in Tesla’s Master Plan – just not in cars.
If there was a nationwide refuelling network, would you buy a hydrogen car?
To be fair, Tesla does talk about hydrogen – quite extensively, actually – in its latest 2023 Master Plan Part 3.
In it, hydrogen plays a major role in storing renewable energy at grid scale, handling the kind of long-duration storage that batteries cannot do.
In fact, according to Tesla’s modelling, over 90% of America’s future long-term energy storage could come from hydrogen.
But in Tesla’s model, that’s hydrogen for infrastructure, not transport. It’s about pipes and tanks, not passenger cars. There’s nothing in the document that even hints at a fuel cell Tesla.
Real hydrogen cars do exist – just not this one
While the “Model H” isn’t real, plenty of hydrogen-powered cars are. Toyota’s Mirai has been on sale for a decade.
Hyundai’s new NEXO is rolling out now. BMW is planning a production model for 2028, and Honda’s hydrogen-powered CR-V has already launched in limited numbers in California this year.
These aren’t rumoured, teased or leaked – they’re real cars with real fuel cells and real infrastructure behind them.
The “Model H” is just a bit of internet fiction that refuses to die.
