In an article for the Guardian, Rowan Atkinson, the actor starring as Mr Bean, explains why he is turning his back on electric cars in favour of hydrogen.

You might think he’s a complete moron, but the British actor has an engineering degree with a specialisation in electrical and electronic engineering and a master’s degree in control systems. So he’s qualified enough to talk about the subject. And what does Mr Bean have to say about hydrogen cars? He says to the Guardian that he bought his first hybrid car 18 years ago and then his first electric car 9 years ago. I was at a time when the network of charging stations was really poor.

He appreciates the quietness of these vehicles. But… he feels he’s been duped. He explains that the upstream pollution to make electric batteries is higher than we think (an argument that was the subject of a fact-check a few days later). As a result, Rowan Atkinson prefers hydrogen. He believes – provided it is green – that it is a solution that could be developed with a fuel cell in cars (read our article about Toyota) and in lorries.

Mr Bean also advocates synthetic fuels, which will be used in Formula 1 from 2026 (see our article). Porche also wants to adopt these kind of fuels for road cars (see our article). This approach would be carbon-neutral. It would also make it possible to keep using current vehicles for longer.

In conclusion, the British actor believes that the honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end. Some bad news for supporters of this type of motorisation.

Do you want to find out more about synthetic fuels? Then you may be interested in our latest article.

Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Logan King