EXCLUSIVE: Hyliion CEO Reveals Why He Thinks KARNO Is A Better ‘Mousetrap’ Than Bloom Energy’s Fuel Cells

• Healy also said that markets often overlook the costly replacement aspect of fuel-cell systems, which need to be replaced every four to five years. 
• Meanwhile, KARNO’s maintenance interval for overhaul is longer and less expensive, he said. 
• The CEO also said that the power generator’s fuel flexibility, which allows it to run on more than 20 fuels, is also an important differentiator.

Hyliion Holdings Corp. (HYLN), the Austin-based power generation company, is positioning itself to serve growing demand for on-site electricity generation across data centers, defense applications, and commercial facilities.

CEO Thomas Healy is making the case that its fuel-agnostic KARNO generator offers several advantages over traditional grid electricity and fuel-cell systems, such as those deployed by Bloom Energy Corp. (BE).

In an exclusive interview with Stocktwits, Healy said that KARNO’s lower cost, lower maintenance, and high efficiency make it a better “mousetrap” technology with greater benefits than its alternatives.

“We’ve got a very high efficiency and low maintenance, which means that you can in most instances, make your own electricity for cheaper than grid electricity,” Healy said.

Healy also argued that while KARNO and fuel-cell systems operate at similar efficiencies, KARNO’s lower maintenance requirements and lower upfront costs would provide an economic advantage over time.

Hyliion’s ‘Future Proofing’ Technology

Hyliion acquired the KARNO technology from GE Additive in 2022 for $37 million. The generator is based on Stirling engine technology, brought to life through 3D printing, and is designed to run on a wide range of fuels.

According to Healy, one of KARNO’s biggest differentiators is fuel flexibility.
“The same exact box can run on nat gas, diesel, hydrogen, propane, ammonia. There’s over 20 fuels that we’ve identified that it can operate on,” he said.

He believes this flexibility could help customers adapt to changing fuel markets. Giving the example of hydrogen, Healy said, “Everyone always talks about this as the fuel of the future. Well, if you go buy a generator today and most times, it’s going to run on natural gas or it’s going to run on diesel, but it doesn’t even have the ability to run on hydrogen.”

“So if hydrogen becomes that fuel of the future, you’ll need to buy new assets versus with our technology, if hydrogen becomes available, then you can just switch over to running that existing product on hydrogen,” he said, adding that the KARNO system would enable customers to “future proof the technology.”

Hyliion Vs Bloom: The Maintenance Cost Debate

Bloom Energy’s solid oxide fuel-cell systems have gained traction among data centers, with notable hypersclares like Oracle forming massive strategic partnerships with the company. Demand for its fuel-cell capacity has led to the company’s shares surging a whopping 1,083.25% in the past year.

However, Healy said that markets often overlook the costly replacement aspect of fuel-cell systems. “One of the things with fuel cells many people don’t realize is usually around year four, year five, you actually need to come in and replace the whole entire fuel cell stack because it just ages out,” he said. “That usually is a hundreds of thousands of dollars endeavor to do that.”

Healy believes that Hyliion’s KARNO can offer a lower total cost of ownership through longer maintenance intervals, lower servicing costs, and reduced upfront expenses.

“Our maintenance interval for overhaul we believe is longer, less expensive. We also have a lower upfront cost than fuel cells, so it’s cheaper to adopt,” he said.

Most recently, the company’s technology has been selected for testing aboard the U.S. Navy’s autonomous USX-1 Defiant vessel to provide reliable onboard electricity without human intervention. Hyliion said the deployment highlights KARNO’s suitability for unmanned platforms due to its modular design, low thermal and acoustic footprint, and reduced maintenance requirements.

Healy believes this disparity in maintenance costs could become a key differentiator for Hyliion. “While our technology and fuel cells will operate at similar efficiencies in terms of making electricity, we believe that our technology actually can run longer with lower maintenance and need less dollars going in to keep the system up and running, which is where we see a big advantage,” he said.

Biggest Challenge: Proving Technology At Scale

However, the CEO acknowledged that fuel-cell providers have a longer commercial track record, while Hyliion’s technology is still emerging.

“We are new to new entrants into this space and new technology. So we need to go prove everything I just mentioned,” he said, while adding that the company has multiple customers who are signing up to evaluate the technology. Apart from the U.S. military, Healy said that multiple large data center providers and commercial customers are in conversation with the company to test out its technology.

HYLN Stock: Retail Stance

HYLN shares hit a fresh 52-week high of $7.97 on Monday and are up more than 296% so far in 2026. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the company was in the ‘neutral’ territory over the past 24 hours, as message volume grew 326% over the same period, according to platform data. Meanwhile, retail sentiment for BE was in the ‘bearish’ territory.

One user said that the company’s “most underappreciated asset isn’t the technology. It’s the balance sheet.”

Another user compared HYLN’s stock performance to other green power generators, including Bloom Energy and Plug Power (PLUG), noting that, “The big dogs in green AI power have all slouched while HYLN has destroyed them YTD.” The user added that while BE had beat over 5 years, “we are gonna get there…hold on!”

A third user, however, said that “from what I see This system burns (oxidizes) fuel. This is dirtier than a Bloom fuel cell. The only way this is clean is burning H2. Systems burning H2 to produce electricity in any significant amount is years away. 2-3 anyway. Bloom is the leader and will stay the leader.”

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